Transport of curcumin from cross-linked chitosan matrices: A comparative study

Chitosan hydrogels are widely studied as drug delivery vehicles. The present work involves investigating the effects of cross-linking on morphology of chitosan gels and their impact on the curcumin release from cross-linked gel matrices. Chitosan usually suffers from poor mechanical strength so to improve the mechanical and thermal stability the gels are often chemically cross-linked. In this study, chitosan hydrogels are prepared and then the gels are cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (synthetic cross-linker) and genipin (a naturally occurring cross-linker). Cross-linked gels are subjected to a number of tests, such as compression test, swelling study, and scanning electron microscopy analysis. Release study was performed by forming drug loaded gels by incorporating curcumin into the chitosan matrices. Morphological analysis for the cross-linked gels revealed compact network structure. Chitosan gel cross-linked with genipin, indicated higher compressive strength (0.1539 + 0.03) MPa than gel cross-linked with glutaraldehyde (0.032 + 0.01) MPa. Gels cross-linked with glutaraldehyde showed higher swelling and also higher release of curcumin ∼90.67% whereas, genipin cross-linked gels having more compact network shows better release profile of curcumin ∼79.26% over 24 hours (P<0.05). Release behaviour indicates swelling dependent release.