Antioxidant Efficacy and "In Vivo" Safety of a Bentonite/Vitamin C Hybrid.

L-ascorbic acid (LAA), commonly known as vitamin C, is an excellent and recognized antioxidant molecule used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic formulations. Several strategies have been developed in order to preserve its chemical stability, connected with its antioxidant power, but there is little research regarding the employment of natural clays as LAA host. A safe bentonite (Bent)-which was verified by in vivo ophthalmic irritability and acute dermal toxicity assays-was used as carrier of LAA.

Hybrid Lipid/Clay Carrier Systems Containing Annatto Oil for Topical Formulations.

Nanocomposites formed by clay and lipid carriers (NLCs) show a high potential for providing controlled release and specific delivery of bioactive molecules and have recently gained attention in the pharmaceutical sector due to their ability to transport hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs. Recent studies have recognized the biological activity of the oil of Bixa orellana L. (AO) with regards to its healing, antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-leishmanial properties.

Correlation between Elemental Composition/Mobility and Skin Cell Proliferation of Fibrous Nanoclay/Spring Water Hydrogels.

Inorganic hydrogels formulated with spring waters and clay minerals are used to treat musculoskeletal disorders and skin affections. Their underlying mechanism of action for skin disorders is not clear, although it is usually ascribed to the chemical composition of the formulation. The aim of this study was to assess the composition and in vitro release of elements with potential wound healing effects from hydrogels prepared with two nanoclays and natural spring water.

Safety of Nanoclay/Spring Water Hydrogels: Assessment and Mobility of Hazardous Elements.

The presence of impurities in medicinal products have to be controlled within safety limits from a pharmaceutical quality perspective. This matter is of special significance for those countries and regions where the directives, guidelines, or legislations, which prescribe the rules for the application of some products is quite selective or incomplete. Clay-based hydrogels are quite an example of this matter since they are topically administered, but, in some regions, they are not subjected to well-defined legal regulations.

Wound Healing Activity of Nanoclay/Spring Water Hydrogels.

Background: hydrogels prepared with natural inorganic excipients and spring waters are commonly used in medical hydrology. Design of these clay-based formulations continues to be a field scarcely addressed. Safety and wound healing properties of different fibrous nanoclay/spring water hydrogels were addressed.

Ground Calcium Carbonate as a Low Cost and Biosafety Excipient for Solubility and Dissolution Improvement of Praziquantel.

Calcium carbonate is an abundant mineral with several advantages to be a successful carrier to improve oral bioavailability of poorly water-soluble drugs, such as praziquantel. Praziquantel is an antiparasitic drug classified in group II of the Biopharmaceutical Classification System hence characterized by high-permeability and low-solubility. Therefore, the dissolution rate is the limiting factor for the gastrointestinal absorption that contributes to the low bioavailability.

Montmorillonite-norfloxacin nanocomposite intended for healing of infected wounds.

Chronic cutaneous wounds represent a major issue in medical care and are often prone to infections. The aim of this study was the design of a clay mineral-drug nanocomposite based on montmorillonite and norfloxacin (NF, antimicrobial drug) as a powder for cutaneous application, to enhance wound healing in infected skin lesions. The nanocomposite has been prepared by means of an intercalation solution procedure.

Halloysite nanotubes as tools to improve the actual challenge of fixed doses combinations in tuberculosis treatment.

Halloysite nanotubes (HLNTs) were used as nanocarriers of the tuberculostatic agent isoniazid (INH), a BCS (Biopharmaceutics Classification System) class III drug. Self-assembling nanohybrids (INH-loaded HLNTs) with an average outer diameter of 90 nm and polydispersity index of 0.7 approximately, were obtained by spontaneous adsorption of INH molecules to HLNTs powder in aqueous medium.

Conformational polymorphic changes in the crystal structure of the chiral antiparasitic drug praziquantel and interactions with calcium carbonate.

Praziquantel is an antiparasitic drug used for decades. Currently, the praziquantel commercial preparation is a racemic mixture, in which only the levo-enantiomer possesses anthelmintic activity. The knowledge of its properties in the solid state and other chemical-physical properties is necessary for improving its efficacy and applications.

Folk pharmaceutical formulations in western Mediterranean: identification and safety of clays used in pelotherapy.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Clays are naturally occurring ingredients of many natural health products, being included in most of ancient Mediterranean/European medical texts and currently used to prepare therapeutic hot-muds (peloids) in several thermal stations of the Mediterranean region. Clays are included in the formulation of peloids as vehicles of the mineral-medicinal water, to obtain inorganic gels with rheological and thermal properties suitable to be topically applied. Knowledge about formulations and preparation procedures of these traditional medicines has been orally transmitted since ancient times.

Montmorillonite-chitosan-silver sulfadiazine nanocomposites for topical treatment of chronic skin lesions: in vitro biocompatibility, antibacterial efficacy and gap closure cell motility properties.

Silver compounds and especially silver sulfadiazine (AgSD) are reported as effective antimicrobial agents against almost all known bacteria, fungi and some viruses. However, AgSD has been shown to be cytotoxic toward fibroblasts and keratinocytes in vitro and consequently to retard wound healing in vivo. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the in vitro biocompatibility (cytotoxicity and proliferation), antimicrobial efficacy and cell motility gap closure (assay of wound closure) of MT/CS nanocomposites loaded with silver sulfadiazine (AgSD).

Intestinal permeability of oxytetracycline from chitosan-montmorillonite nanocomposites.

A nanocomposite based on chitosan and montmorillonite was developed as carrier to improve oral bioavailability of oxytetracycline. The nanocomposite was prepared by simple solid-liquid interaction and loaded with the drug. The loaded nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, thermal analysis, FTIR spectroscopy and zeta potential.

Solid state characterisation of silver sulfadiazine loaded on montmorillonite/chitosan nanocomposite for wound healing.

Biopolymer chitosan/montmorillonite nanocomposites loaded with silver sulfadiazine for wound healing purposes were prepared via intercalation solution technique. Structure and morphology of loaded nanocomposites were studied and compared with pure components and unloaded nanocomposites. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersion X-ray analysis, thermal and elemental analysis were employed for the characterisation.

Networking and rheology of concentrated clay suspensions "matured" in mineral medicinal water.

This work studied the influence of "maturation" conditions (time and agitation) on aggregation states, gel structure and rheological behaviour of a special kind of pharmaceutical semisolid products made of concentrated clay suspensions in mineral medicinal water. Maturation of the samples was carried out in distilled and sulphated mineral medicinal water, both in static conditions (without agitation) and with manual stirring once a week, during a maximum period of three months. At the measured pH interval (7.

Supramolecular structure of 5-aminosalycilic acid/halloysite composites.

This paper assesses the supramolecular structure of nanocomposites prepared by including the anti-inflammatory drug 5-aminosalycilic acid in halloysite nanotubes. Halloysite tubes have sub-micron individual lengths with outer diameters ∼0.1 µm, as observed by FESEM.