Niosomes Encapsulated Anthocyanins Complex Loaded in a Topical Oral Gel

Complexation of anthocyanin has been introduced to help improved anthocyanin stability. Slightly water solubility, after forming complex of anthocyanins, represents obstacle against formulation preparation. The objective of this study is to formulate topical gel containing anthocyanin for treating oral wound. Niosomes were introduced to help delivery anthocyanins and increasing permeability. Development and evaluation of anthocyanin complex (AC) gel and anthocyanin complex niosomes (ACN) gel have been compared in physicochemical properties such as particle size, zeta potential, homogeneity, release and permeation of the gel including stability of the gel formulations. The average size of AC of ~5 nm was increased to ~100 nm after encapsulated in niosomal vesicle. Similar to the particle size, zeta potential of ACN showed greater negatively charge than the AC. The cell viability of human gingival fibroblast (HGF) exposed to AC and ACN in a concentration of 2-2000 µg/ml for 24 h showed no significantly decreased compared to the cells treated with negative control (cell culture medium solution, p > 0.05). The adhesiveness of the AC gel is stronger than the ACN gel, but after applied onto the mucosal membrane, adhesiveness detected from ACN gel were insignificantly higher than those detected from AC gel ( p > 0.05). Transmission electron microscope (TEM) photograph observed AC immersed in gel-like background while ACN presented sphere-like unilamella vesicles with polymeric gel embedded in the niosomal vesicles. The AC gel and ACN gel showed a similar release pattern, but the ACN gel showed higher anthocyanin penetration than the non niosomes gel. High storage temperature affects the color of both AC gel and AC niosomes gel. Thus, our results indicate that AC gel and ACN gel provided appropriated release and permeation of active anthocyanin form, showed good stability and expressed no cytotoxicity supposed to be the proper formula for the future topical gel use.