Preparation of vitamin E loaded nanocapsules by the nanoprecipitation method: from laboratory scale to large scale using a membrane contactor.

Vitamin E or α-tocopherol is widely used as a strong antioxidant in many medical and cosmetic applications, but is rapidly degraded, because of its light, heat and oxygen sensitivity. In this study, we applied the nanoprecipitation method to prepare vitamin E-loaded nanocapsules, at laboratory-scale and pilot-scale. We scaled-up the preparation of nanocapsule with the membrane contactor technique. The effect of several formulation variables on the vitamin E-loaded nanocapsules properties (mean diameter, zeta potential, and drug entrapment efficiency) was investigated. The optimized formulation at laboratory-scale and pilot-scale lead to the preparation of vitamin E-loaded nanocapsules with mean diameter of 165 and 172 nm, respectively, and a high encapsulation efficiency (98% and 97%, respectively).