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

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

**89**

**Author details**

Thevara, India

Reshma Joy, Franklin John and Jinu George\*

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*Address all correspondence to: jinujacob@shcollege.ac.in

Science and Technology-STIC for instrumental analysis.

Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Sacred Heart College,

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

*Preparation and Characterisation of Niosomal Emulsions as Novel Drug Delivery Vehicle…*

polymer concentration for curcumin release. Curcumin release from alginate/*κ-Car* hydrogel beads shows a higher release percentage than alginate/gelatin hydrogel beads. It can be concluded that higher swelling degree of the alginate/*κ-Car* hydro-

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

Authors acknowledge financial support from Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (SAN No. 564/2017/KSCSTE). We thank central instrumentation facility, Sacred Heart College for support and Cochin University of

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86942*

**5. Conclusions**

research.

**Acknowledgements**

gel beads leads to greater curcumin release percentage.

*Preparation and Characterisation of Niosomal Emulsions as Novel Drug Delivery Vehicle… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86942*

polymer concentration for curcumin release. Curcumin release from alginate/*κ-Car* hydrogel beads shows a higher release percentage than alginate/gelatin hydrogel beads. It can be concluded that higher swelling degree of the alginate/*κ-Car* hydrogel beads leads to greater curcumin release percentage.
