Production of electrospun fast-dissolving drug delivery systems with therapeutic eutectic systems encapsulated in gelatin

Fast-dissolving delivery systems (FDDS) have received increasing attention in the last years. Oral drug delivery is still the preferred route for the administration of pharmaceutical ingredients. Nevertheless, some patients, e.g. children or elderly people, have difficulties in swallowing solid tablets. In this work, gelatin membranes were produced by electrospinning, containing an encapsulated therapeutic deep-eutectic solvent (THEDES) composed by choline chloride/mandelic acid, in a 1:2 molar ratio. A gelatin solution (30% w/ v) with 2% (v/v) of THEDES was used to produce electrospun fibers and the experimental parameters were optimized. Due to the high surface area of polymer fibers, this type of construct has wide applicability. With no cytotoxicity effect, and showing a fast-dissolving release profile in PBS, the gelatin fibers with encapsulated THEDES seem to have promising applications in the development of new drug delivery systems.The research leading to these results has received funding from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) through the projects ENIGMA - PTDC/EQU-EPR/ 121491/2010 and UID/CTM/50025/2013, LAQVREQUIMTE: UID/QUI/50006/2013, UCIBIO-REQUIMTE: UID/Multi/04378/2013 (co-financed by the ERDF under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement [POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 007728]) and by FEDER through the COMPETE 2020 Programme. Marta Martins is grateful for financial support from FCT through the grant BIM/PTDC/EQUEPR/121491/ 2010/ENIGMA. This research has also received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/ 2007-2013) under grant agreement number REGPOTCT2012-316331-POLARIS and from the project BNovel smart and biomimetic materials for innovative regenerative medicine approaches^ RL1 - ABMR - NORTE-01-0124- FEDER-000016) co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cork oak and climate change: disentangling drought effects on cork chemical composition

Climate change induces in the Mediterranean region more frequent and extreme events, namely, heat waves and droughts, disturbing forest species and affecting their productivity and product quality. The cork oak (Quercus suber) is present along the western Mediterranean basin and its outer bark (cork) is sustainably collected and used for several products, mainly wine bottle stoppers. Since most cork properties arise from its chemical composition, this research studies the effect of drought on cork chemical composition (suberin, lignin, polysaccharides and extractives) and on polysaccharide and suberin monomeric composition. Three sets of cork samples, from the same site, were examined: in one set the cork grew without drought; in another two drought events occurred during cork growth and in the third one drought event happened. The results show that, in general, drought does not affect the proportion of the main components of cork, the monomers of suberin or of polysaccharides, with few exceptions e.g. drought increased ethanol extractives and xylose in polysaccharides and decreased arabinose in polysaccharides. The variability associated to the tree is much more relevant than the effect of drought conditions and affects all the parameters analyzed. Therefore, our research suggests that the tree genetic information, or its expression, plays a much more important role on the chemical composition of cork than the drought conditions occurring during cork growth. In practical terms, the potential increased occurrence of droughts arising from climatic changes will not compromise the performance of cork as a sealant for wine bottlesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Towards eco-friendly crop protection: natural deep eutectic solvents and defensive secondary metabolites

Plant science

Hydroalcoholic extracts from the bark of Quercus suber L. (Cork): optimization of extraction conditions, chemical composition and antioxidant potential

Cork is the bark of the tree Quercus suber L. which ï¬ nds use in diverse applications. However, a signiï¬ cant percentage is still rejected and burned for energy production, despite containing valuable molecules for materials processing and with important biological activities. Herein, the optimization of the extraction process to obtain these molecules, using mild solvents and conditions, is described within a bioreï¬ nery perspective. The extracts were obtained by direct contact solvent extractions with water, ethanol and its mixtures for different time and temperatures, and evaluated for chemical composition, total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant properties [by DPPH radical scavenging, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assays]. The results showed that the extraction process is accelerated and higher yields are achieved with the increase in temperature without chemical degradation or compromising the antioxidant capacity. For all solvents, at reï¬ ux temperature, more than 90% of the extractable material is obtained within 6 h (80% within 1 h). The highest TPC and antioxidant capacity are observed for the extracts obtained with mixtures of water and ethanol of similar volumes. The antioxidant capacity measured by DPPH, FRAP and TEAC assays was found to be proportional to the extract TPC, while ORAC is favored for higher percentages of ethanol on the extracting solvent. The main constituents of these extracts are the ellagitannins, vescalagin, castalagin and b-O-ethylvescalagin, along with other phenolic acids (mainly ellagic and gallic acids) and various ï¬ avonols. The extracts stability was monitored up to 1 year of storage with neither reduction in the antioxidant capacity nor chemical degradation. These results show that extracts with strong antioxidant potential and high content of bioactive molecules can be obtained from the processing of waste streams. Cork is a sustainable forest product and the development of new ï¬ elds of application contributes toward a zero waste cycle for a complete material bioreï¬ nery.The authors are grateful to Amorim Cork Composites for providing the cork powder and for the financing provided by the COMPETE/QREN/EU funding program through project BioActiveCork (QREN FCOMP-01-0202-FEDER-005455). Ivo M. Aroso and João P. Fernandes Fig. 6 Comparison between fresh and 1 year stored extracts for a TPC and b DPPH scavenging capacity Wood Sci Technol123 acknowledge the financial support from FCT through grants SFRH/BD/42273/2007 and SFRH/BD/73162/2010, respectively. Funding was also granted from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under Grant Agreement No. REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS and from Project ‘‘Novel smart and biomimetic materials for innovative regenerative medicine approaches (Ref.: RL1 - ABMR - NORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000016)’’ co-financed by North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (ON.2 – O Novo Norte), under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deep Eutectic Solvents for Innovative Pharmaceutical Formulations

International audienc