Ucuùba fat is fat obtained from a plant found in South America, mainly in Amazonian Brazil. Due to its biocompatibility and bioactivity, Ucuùba fat was used for the production of
ketoconazole-loaded nanostructured
lipid carriers (NLC) in view of an application for the treatment of
onychomycosis and other persistent
fungal infections. The development and optimization of Ucuùba fat-based NLC were performed using a Box-Behnken design of experiments. The independent variables were
surfactant concentration (% w/v), liquid
lipids concentration (% w/v), solid
lipids concentration (% w/v), while the outputs of interest were particle size, polydispersity index (PDI) and drug encapsulation efficiency (EE). Ucuùba fat-based NLC were produced and the process was optimized by the development of a predictive mathematical model. Applying the model, two formulations with pre-determined particle size, i.e., 30 and 85 nm, were produced for further evaluation. The optimized formulations were characterized and showed particle size in agreement to the predicted value, i.e., 33.6 nm and 74.6 nm, respectively. The optimized formulations were also characterized using multiple techniques in order to investigate the solid state of drug and
excipients (DSC and XRD), particle morphology (TEM), drug release and interactions between the formulation components (FTIR). Furthermore, particle size, surface charge and drug loading efficiency of the formulations were studied during a one-month stability study and did not show evidence of significant modification.