Hybrid liposomes composed of hydrophilic emulsifiers and lecithin: Physicochemical, interaction and curcumin loading properties

In this study, the hybrid liposomes composed of lecithin and the hydrophilic emulsifiers including Tween 80 and decaglycerol monolaurate were prepared, and their curcumin loading performance were investigated. Results showed that the fusion of hydrophilic emulsifiers into lecithin membrane formed a new liposome-micelle-hybrid (LMH) structure whereby the LMH with Tween 80 had thinner film thickness and smaller particle size as demonstrated by quartz crystal microbalance and dynamic light scattering than LMH with decaglycerol monolaurate. In addition, the binary complex of lecithin and emulsifier had synergistic effect on the improvement of solubilizing curcumin in ethanol and water. Further evaluation of loading capacity of curcumin demonstrated that the LMH with low levels of emulsifiers possessed the maximum curcumin encapsulation efficiency compared to the pure liposomes or emulsifier-based micelles. Therefore, LMH could be a promising formulation for encapsulating and delivering bioactive substances.