Development and In Vitro Evaluation of a Zerumbone Loaded Nanosuspension Drug Delivery System

Zerumbone extracted from the volatile oil of rhizomes available from the Zinigiber zerumbet has promising pharmacological activity. However, it has poor aqueous solubility and dissolution characteristics. To improve this, a nanosuspension formulation of zerumbone was developed. Nanosuspensions were formulated using high-pressure homogenization (HPH) with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) as stabilizers; the formulation was optimized and freeze dried. The optimized nanosuspension product was evaluated using an optical light microscope, photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS), polydispersity index, zeta potential, SEM, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and FT-IR. The physical stability of the nanosuspensions was evaluated for 30 days at 4 °C, 25 °C, and 37 °C. To validate the theoretical benefit of the increased surface area, we determined an in vitro saturation solubility and dissolution profile. The mean particle size, polydispersity index and zeta potential of the zerumbone nanosuspensions stabilized by SDS versus HPMC were found to be 211 ± 27 nm vs. 398 ± 3.5 nm, 0.39 ± 0.06 vs. 0.55 ± 0.004, and −30.86 ± 2.3 mV vs. −3.37 ± 0.002 mV, respectively. The in vitro saturation solubility and dissolution revealed improved solubility for the zerumbone nanosuspension. These results suggested that the nanosuspensionlization improves the saturation solubility and dissolution profile of zerumbone, which may facilitate its use as a therapeutic agent in the future