International Conference on Contemporary Science and Clinical Pharmacy, 2022 | 61 Original Article ENHANCEMENT OF CURCUMIN SOLUBILITY AND DISSOLUTION BY ADSORPTION IN MESOPOROUS SBA-15 LILI FITRIANI * , HUSNUN AZIZAH, USWATUL HASANAH, ERIZAL ZAINI Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universitas Andalas, Kampus Limau Manis, Padang 25163 * Email: lilifitriani@phar.unand.ac.id Received: 12 Nov 2022, Revised and Accepted: 03 Jan 2023 ABSTRACT Objective: Curcumin belongs to BCS class IV, which has low solubility, around 7.8 µg/ml and its results of low bioavailability. The study aimed to enhance solubility and dissolution rate of curcumin by adsorption in mesoporous silica SBA-15. Methods: The synthesis of SBA-15 was done by using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica precursors and Pluronic P123 (EO20PO70EO20) as template of pore-forming. Impregnation of curcumin in SBA-15 was conducted by evaporation in ethanol solution with 2:1 of curcumin: SBA-15 proportion. Curcumin-SBA-15 were characterized by Nitrogen Adsorption-Desorption Isotherm, Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), Fourier Transformed Infrared (FT-IR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The solubility test was performed by using an orbital shaker for 24 h in CO2-free distilled water. The dissolution rate was conducted in CO2-free distilled water using USP Type-II dissolution test apparatus. Results: Efficiency entrapment of curcumin-SBA-15 was 59.433%. The successful adsorption of curcumin in SBA-15 was confirmed by reducing its surface area (48.165 m 2 /g) and pore volume (0.073x10- 1 cm 3 /g). The results of PXRD analysis showed that decreased in the intensity of the diffraction peak. In addition, the FTIR spectrum of curcumin-SBA-15 was similar to its intact component. The solubility and dissolution rate test of curcumin-SBA-15 enhanced 2.201 times and 3.214 times at 60 min compared to intact curcumin. Conclusion: It can be concluded that the adsorption of curcumin in SBA-15 increased both the solubility and dissolution rate of curcumin. Keywords: Curcumin, SBA-15, Solubility, Dissolution rate © 2023 The Authors. Published by Innovare Academic Sciences Pvt Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.22159/ijap.2023.v15s1.47515 Journal homepage: https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijap INTRODUCTION Curcumin (CUR) is the most active component of Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), which has several therapeutic benefits, including antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-carcinogenic, and anti- inflammatory, one of the most difficult challenges in developing curcumin is low oral bioavailability due to its hydrophobicity. Curcumin belongs to Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) class IV in which the solubility is around 7.8 µg/ml and resulting limit its efficacy [1, 2]. Several methods have been developed to improve the solubility of the compound, such as solid lipid nanoparticle, solid dispersion, colloidal drug delivery systems, microemulsion and multicomponent crystal [3, 4]. A mesoporous material have attracted a great deal of interest in the past decade because of specific features which are well-ordered pores, high surface area and high porosity. Mesoporous materials consist from silica and non-silica substance like mesoporous oxide metal with nitrate salt precursor from the metals Zn, Ni, Co, Pb, Al. However, non-silica mesoporous have a high reactivity in condensation and hydrolysis reaction from oxide metal precursor, resulting an unstable mesoporous. Thus, mesoporous silica is more commonly used than non-silica [5]. Mesoporous silica has been proven to enhance the solubility and dissolution rate of poor soluble drugs. The inclusion of carbamezapine in MCM-41 mesoporous, which has synthesized using cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (CTACl) showed that the dissolution MCM-41-CARBA reached 97% in deionised water, 90% in phosphate buffer and 83% compared to the crystalline form the drug release was only 60%, 65% and 35%, respectively [6]. In addition, ketoprofen into SBA-15 showed increasing its solubility up to 95% in acidic and basic pH [7]. In this study, SBA-15 mesoporous silica is used due to thick pore walls so will present better thermal stability than MCM-41. SBA-15 is synthesized using nonionic surfactant (normally containing triblock-copolymers) which can used as a template of pore-forming. In the acidic solution, surfactant will organize the micelles formation and coated by silica precursor tetraethyl ortho-silicate (TEOS). Mesoporous silica SBA-15 was obtained by removing surfactant with calcination method in the high temperature. Therefore, this study aims to prepare curcumin in SBA-15 mesoporous by adsorption process in order to enhance the solubility and dissolution of curcumin. The mesoporous are characterized by Nitrogen Adsorption-Desorption Isotherm, Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), Fourier Transformed Infrared (FT-IR), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) [8, 9]. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials Curcumin (Tokyo Chemical Industry, Japan), Pluronic P123 ([HO(CH2CH2O)20(CH2CH(CH3)O)70(CH2CH2O)20H]) (Sigma Aldrich, US), TEOS (Tetraethyl Ortho-Silicate) (Sigma Aldrich, US), hydrochloric acid, ethanol, sodium chloride and deionized water. Methods Preparation of SBA-15 Synthesis of mesoporous silica SBA-15 was performed by molar ratio of TEOS: HCl: H2O: P123 as 1:6:166:0.02 with the addition of 6 moles of NaCl. In a typical synthesis process, Pluronic 123 and NaCl were dissolved in 2 M hydrochloric acid (HCl) and deionized water, stirred for 24 h at room temperature. Tetraethyl ortho-silicate (TEOS) was added, a clear solution was achieved after 3 h of continuous mechanical stirring of the solution then stored at 80 ⁰C for 24 h as for hydrothermal process. The white solid product was washed and filtered with deionized repeatedly and dried at 50 °C. The removal of the surfactant template was achieved by calcination in 550 °C for 4 h to form SBA-15 [10]. Adsorption of curcumin in SBA-15 Curcumin was dissolved in ethanol (10 mg/ml) and SBA-15 was added in the weight ratios 2:1 (curcumin: SBA-15). Then, the mixture was stirred with a magnetic stirrer at a temperature of 80 International Journal of Applied Pharmaceutics ISSN- 0975-7058 Vol 15, Special Issue 1, 2023