MELOXICAM SELF-NANOEMULSIFYING DRUG DELIVERY SYSTEM: FORMULATION AND RELEASE KINETICS ANALYSIS

Objective: This study aimed to find the best SNEDDS meloxicam formula and analyze the release kinetics of meloxicam SNEDDS and non-SNEDDS using DDSolver. Methods: Meloxicam SNEDDS was prepared using sunflower seed oil, Cremophor RH 40 as a surfactant, and polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 as a co-surfactant. Results: The best formula obtained subjected to the in vitro dissolution study was analyzed using DDSolver. The study shows one selected formula consists of 10% sunflower seed oil, 70% cremophor RH 40, and 20% PEG 400 with a 20.5 nm±12 nm droplet size. The dissolution study showed that SNEDDS could significantly increase the meloxicam release compared to the non-SNEDDS formulation. The kinetics of meloxicam release from SNEDDS formulations follow the Weibull release model (β = 1.00). Conclusion: This study concludes that SNEDDS best prepared in sunflower seeds oil: Chremophor RH 40: PEG 400 ratio of 1: 7: 2 and has the potency to increase the solubility and dissolution of meloxicam.

Effect of topical applications of sunflower seed oil on systemic fatty acid levels in under-two children under rehabilitation for severe acute malnutrition in Bangladesh: a randomized controlled trial

Background Children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) have inadequate levels of fatty acids (FAs) and limited capacity for enteral nutritional rehabilitation. We hypothesized that topical high-linoleate sunflower seed oil (SSO) would be effective adjunctive treatment for children with SAM. Methods This study tested a prespecified secondary endpoint of a randomized, controlled, unblinded clinical trial with 212 children with SAM aged 2 to 24 months in two strata (2 to < 6 months, 6 to 24 months in a 1:2 ratio) at Dhaka Hospital of icddr,b, Bangladesh between January 2016 and December 2017. All children received standard-of-care management of SAM. Children randomized to the emollient group also received whole-body applications of 3 g/kg SSO three times daily for 10 days. We applied difference-in-difference analysis and unsupervised clustering analysis using t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE) to visualize changes in FA levels in blood from day 0 to day 10 of children with SAM treated with emollient compared to no-emollient. Results Emollient therapy led to systematically higher increases in 26 of 29 FAs over time compared to the control. These effects were driven primarily by changes in younger subjects (27 of 29 FAs). Several FAs, especially those most abundant in SSO showed high-magnitude but non-significant incremental increases from day 0 to day 10 in the emollient group vs. the no-emollient group; for linoleic acid, a 237 μg/mL increase was attributable to enteral feeding and an incremental 98 μg/mL increase (41%) was due to emollient therapy. Behenic acid (22:0), gamma-linolenic acid (18:3n6), and eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n3) were significantly increased in the younger age stratum; minimal changes were seen in the older children. Conclusions SSO therapy for SAM augmented the impact of enteral feeding in increasing levels of several FAs in young children. Further research is warranted into optimizing this novel approach for nutritional rehabilitation of children with SAM, especially those < 6 months. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02616289.

Formation of Pyrazines in Maillard Model Systems: Effects of Structures of Lysine-Containing Dipeptides/Tripeptides

At present, most investigations involving the Maillard reaction models have focused on free amino acids (FAAs), whereas the effects of peptides on volatile products are poorly understood. In our study, the formation mechanism of pyrazines, which were detected as characteristic volatiles in sunflower seed oil, from the reaction system of glucose and lysine-containing dipeptides and tripeptides was studied. The effect of the amino acid sequences of the dipeptides and tripeptides on pyrazine formation was further highlighted. Four different dipeptides and six tripeptides were selected. The results showed that the production of pyrazines in the lysine-containing dipeptide models was higher than that in the tripeptide and control models. Compounds 2,5(6)-Dimethylpyrazine and 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine were the main pyrazine compounds in the dipeptide models. Furthermore, the C- or N-terminal amino acids of lysine-containing dipeptides can exert an important effect on the formation of pyrazines. In dipeptide models with lysine at the C-terminus, the content of total pyrazines followed the order of Arg−Lys > His−Lys; the order of the total pyrazine content was Lys−His > Lys−Arg in dipeptide models with N-terminal lysine. Additionally, for the tripeptide models with different amino acid sequences, more pyrazines and a greater variety of pyrazines were detected in the tripeptide models with N-terminal lysine/arginine than in the tripeptide models with N-terminal histidine. However, the total pyrazine content and the percentage of pyrazines in the total volatiles were similar in the tripeptide models with the same amino acids at the N-terminus. This study clearly illustrates the ability of dipeptides and tripeptides containing lysine, arginine and histidine to form pyrazines, improving volatile formation during sunflower seed oil processing.

Enzymatic preparation of phytosterol esters with fatty acids from high-oleic sunflower seed oil using response surface methodology

Enzymatic preparation of phytosterol esters with fatty acids from high-oleic sunflower seed oil has been established with very mild reaction conditions.