**5. Conclusions**

*Role of Novel Drug Delivery Vehicles in Nanobiomedicine*

in the hydrogel beads increases leading to the fact that curcumin molecules has to travel a long path in order to diffuse out through the swollen beads because of its characteristic size. This causes a slow release of curcumin from both the hydrogel

*Effect of alginate/gelatin weight ratio's on cumulative release of curcumin from the hydrogel beads with* 

*κ*-*Car* content on drug release has been studied by varying *κ*-*Car* in the range 20–50% (w/w). **Figure 4** clearly depicts that the amount of released curcumin increases with increasing *κ*-*Car* content. With increase in *κ*-*Car* content in hydrogel beads, swelling increases resulting in enhanced drug release. Alginate/*κ*-*Car* beads with alginate/*κ*-*Car* weight ratio 50:50 showed highest curcumin release percentage (95.45%), owing to the fact that the matrices were built on weak entanglements

In the case of alginate/gelatin hydrogel beads, influence of gelatin content on curcumin release was studied by varying its amount in the range 20–50% (w/w) (**Figure 7**). Drug release investigations suggests that with increasing gelatin content, release of curcumin from alginate/gelatin hydrogel beads increases and the observed curcumin release is due to the larger swelling. Alginate/gelatin hydrogel

Drug release from the hydrogel beads was also studied by varying polymer concentration in the range 1–2.5%. In the case of both hydrogel beads, 2.5% is the best

beads with 50:50 weight ratios showed 48.24% curcumin release.

*4.3.4 Effect of varying percentage composition of κ-Car and gelatin on* 

*4.3.2 Effect of κ-Car and gelatin on curcumin release*

*polymer concentrations (a) 1%, (b) 1.5%, (c) 2%, (d) 2.5%.*

driven by the presence of *κ*-*Car*.

*curcumin release*

*4.3.3 Effect of gelatin on curcumin release*

**88**

beads.

**Figure 7.**

Present study describes the development and evaluation of natural polymer based hydrogel beads for drug encapsulation. The key role of the carrier was for the dissolution of curcumin in aqueous media. Alginate/*κ-Car* hydrogel beads with 50:50 weight ratio showed highest swelling degree having a higher of curcumin release percentage (95.45%) in PBS (pH 7.4). Observations of morphological analysis show that the amount of carrageenan content has significant content in the pore size of beads. Swelling degree of alginate/gelatin hydrogel beads were lower than compared to the swelling behaviour of alginate/*κ-Car* hydrogel beads. This reveals the role of Car in improving the swelling as well as release pattern of curcumin. Results obtained reiterate the increased efficacy of polymer blends with incorporation of *κ-Car* for hydrophobic drug encapsulation. Effective drug release is also established. In fact, the drug release and biological activity of environment friendly hydrogel beads based on natural polymers represent an innovative and adequate alternative for the development of novel therapeutic agents in drug discovery research.
