Recent progress in double emulsions

Co-delivery of hydrophobic β-carotene and hydrophilic riboflavin by novel water-in-oleic acid-in-water (W/OA/W) emulsions

Hydrophobic β-carotene and hydrophilic riboflavin offer a wide range of health benefits, but their limited stability and bioaccessibility pose challenges to their use in the food industry. This study developed a water-in-oleic acid-in-water (W/OA/W) emulsion. The effects of internal/external water phase emulsifiers were investigated on their microstructure, encapsulation efficiency, and stability. Only 0.05 wt% soybean-derived phosphatidylcholine was required as a lipophilic emulsifier to produce W/OA/W emulsions that can encapsulate both hydrophobic β-carotene and hydrophilic riboflavin. Compared to the commercial pea protein isolate (PPI), the PPI-xylooligosaccharide conjugate demonstrated superior performance as hydrophilic emulsifiers in stabilizing W/OA/W emulsions. The W/OA/W emulsion co-delivery system improved the thermal stability, light stability, and bioaccessibility of β-carotene, as well as the light stability of riboflavin. Overall, the W/OA/W emulsion holds great promise for application in natural food and for co-delivering hydrophobic and hydrophilic bioactive ingredients.

An expanding horizon of complex injectable products: development and regulatory considerations

There has been a constant evolution in the pharmaceutical market concerning the new technologies imbibed in delivering drug substances for various indications. This is either market-driven or technology-driven to improve the overall therapeutic efficacy and patients' quality of life. The pharmaceutical industry has experienced rapid growth in the area of complex injectable products because of their effectiveness in the unmet market. These novel parenteral products, viz, the nanoparticles, liposomes, microspheres, suspensions, and emulsions, have proven their worth as "Safe and Effective" products. However, the underlying challenges involved in the development, scalability, and characterization of these injectable products are critical. Moreover, the guidelines available do not provide a clear understanding of these complex products, making it difficult to anticipate the regulatory requirements. Thus, it becomes imperative to comprehend the criticalities and develop an understanding of these products. This review discusses various complexities involved in the parenteral products such as complex drug substances, excipients, dosage forms, drug administration devices like pre-filled syringes and injector pens, and its different characterization tools and techniques. The review also provides a brief discussion on the regulatory aspects and associated hurdles with other parenteral products.

Biocides and techniques for their encapsulation: a review

Biocides are compounds that are broadly used to protect products and equipment against microbiological damage. Encapsulation can effectively increase physicochemical stability and allow for controlled release of encapsulated biocides. We categorized microencapsulation into coacervation, sol-gel, and self-assembly methods. The former comprises internal phase separation, interfacial polymerization, and multiple emulsions, and the latter include polymersomes and layer-by-layer techniques. The focus of this review is the description of these categories based on their microencapsulation methods and mechanisms. We discuss the key features and potential applications of each method according to the characteristics of the biocide to be encapsulated, relating the solubility of biocides to the capsule-forming materials, the reactivity between them and the desired release rate. The role of encapsulation in the safety and toxicity of biocide applications is also discussed. Furthermore, future perspectives for biocide applications and encapsulation techniques are presented.

Release of amino acids encapsulated in PGPR-stabilized W/O/W emulsions is affected by temperature and hydrophobicity

Double or multiple emulsions have been under study for several decades, due to the possibility of encapsulation and controlled release of various bioactive compounds. This contribution focuses on the decisive parameters for encapsulation and release in double emulsions by considering different amino acids at different environmental conditions. Laser diffraction analysis showed that the double emulsion average droplet size increased from 50 up to 90 µm after 32 days of storage. The emulsions at 4 °C showed a higher increase compared to 37 °C. Dilution in SDS solution revealed that this droplet size increase was due to aggregation rather than coalescence. The results showed that there was no significant change in the entrapped water volume fraction of the double emulsions during 2 weeks of storage. Amino acids were encapsulated within the internal aqueous phase with an efficiency of at least 80%. Regarding the release of the entrapped amino acids, it was found that both the temperature and the hydrophobicity of the amino acid had a significant effect. Fastest release was found at the highest temperature studied (i.e. 37 °C), which was thought to be due to the higher solubility and faster diffusion rate of the amino acid in the oil phase. As hydrophobicity increased, the released amino acid concentration also increased. The pH, on the other hand, did not have a significant effect on the release within the pH range considered (i.e. 7-10). The constant internal water volume fraction, together with the significant effect of temperature and hydrophobicity, indicated that the main release mechanism of amino acids in double emulsions is by direct diffusion from the internal to the external aqueous phase.

Use of microcapsules as controlled release devices for coatings

Biofouling of surfaces is a considerable problem in many industrial sectors and for the public community in general. The problem is usually approached by the use of functional coatings and most of such antifouling coatings rely on the effect of biocides. However, a substantial drawback is the poor control over the release of the biocide as well as its degradation in the paint. Encapsulation of the biocides in microcapsules is a promising approach that may overcome some of the problems associated with the more traditional ways of incorporating the antifouling agent into the formulation. In this review, we summarize more than a decade of microcapsule research from our lab as well as from other groups working on this topic. Focus will be on two coacervation-based encapsulation techniques; the internal phase separation method and the double emulsion method, which together enable the encapsulation of a broad spectrum of biocides with different physicochemical properties. The release of the biocide from core-shell particles and from encapsulated biocides in coatings is treated in detail. The release behaviour is interpreted in terms of the physicochemical properties of the core-shell particle and the coating matrix. In addition, special attention is given to the experimental release methodology and the implementation of proper diffusion models to describe the release. At the end of the review examples of antifouling properties of some coatings against common biofoulers are presented.

Influence of diffusive transport on the structural evolution of W/O/W emulsions

Double emulsions of the W/O/W type are compartmented materials suitable for encapsulation and sustained release of hydrophilic compounds. Initially, the inner aqueous droplets contain an encapsulated compound (EC), and the external phase comprises an osmotic regulator (OR). Over time, water and the solutes dissolved in it tend to be transferred from one aqueous compartment to the other across the oil phase. Water transfer being by far the fastest process, osmotic equilibration of two compartments is permanently ensured. Since the transport of the EC and OR generally occurs at dissimilar rates, the osmotic regulation process provokes a continuous flux of water that modifies the inner and outer volumes. We fabricated W/O/W emulsions stabilized by a couple of amphiphilic polymers, and we measured the inward and outward diffusion kinetics of the solutes. The phenomenology was explored by varying the chemical nature of the OR while keeping the same EC or vice versa. Microscope observations revealed different evolution scenarios, depending on the relative rates of transfer of the EC and OR. Structural evolution was mainly determined by the permeation ratio between the EC and the OR, irrespective of their chemical nature. In particular, a regime leading to droplet emptying was identified. In all cases, evolution was due to diffusion/permeation phenomena and coalescence was marginal. Results were discussed within the frame of a simple mean-field model taking into account the diffusive transfer of the solutes.

One-step formation of w/o/w multiple emulsions stabilized by single amphiphilic block copolymers

Multiple emulsions are complex polydispersed systems in which both oil-in-water (O/W) and water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion exists simultaneously. They are often prepared accroding to a two-step process and commonly stabilized using a combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfactants. Recently, some reports have shown that multiple emulsions can also be produced through one-step method with simultaneous occurrence of catastrophic and transitional phase inversions. However, these reported multiple emulsions need surfactant blends and are usually described as transitory or temporary systems. Herein, we report a one-step phase inversion process to produce water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) multiple emulsions stabilized solely by a synthetic diblock copolymer. Unlike the use of small molecule surfactant combinations, block copolymer stabilized multiple emulsions are remarkably stable and show the ability to separately encapsulate both polar and nonpolar cargos. The importance of the conformation of the copolymer surfactant at the interfaces with regards to the stability of the multiple emulsions using the one-step method is discussed.

Impact of sodium caseinate concentration and location on magnesium release from multiple W/O/W emulsions

Water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double emulsions were prepared and the rate of release of magnesium ions from the internal to the external aqueous phase was followed. Sodium caseinate was used not only as a hydrophilic surface-active species but also as a chelating agent able to bind magnesium ions. The release occurred without film rupturing (no coalescence). The kinetics of the release process depended on the location (in only one or in both aqueous compartments) and on the concentration of sodium caseinate. The rate of release increased with the concentration of sodium caseinate in the external phase and decreased when sodium caseinate was present in the inner droplets. The experiments were interpreted within the frame of a mean-field model based on diffusion, integrating the effect of ion binding. The data could be adequately fitted by considering a time-dependent permeation coefficient of the magnesium ions across the oil phase. Our results suggested that ion permeability was influenced by the state of the protein interfacial layers which itself depended on the extent of magnesium binding.

Temperature-induced protein release from water-in-oil-in-water double emulsions

A model water-in-oil-in-water (W1/O/W2) double emulsion was prepared by a two-step emulsification procedure and subsequently subjected to temperature changes that caused the oil phase to freeze and thaw while the two aqueous phases remained liquid. Our previous work on individual double-emulsion globules1 demonstrated that crystallizing the oil phase (O) preserves stability, while subsequent thawing triggers coalescence of the droplets of the internal aqueous phase (W1) with the external aqueous phase (W2), termed external coalescence. Activation of this instability mechanism led to instant release of fluorescently tagged bovine serum albumin (fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-BSA) from the W 1 droplets and into W2. These results motivated us to apply the proposed temperature-induced globule-breakage mechanism to bulk double emulsions. As expected, no phase separation of the emulsion occurred if stored at temperatures below 18 degrees C (freezing point of the model oil n-hexadecane), whereas oil thawing readily caused instability. Crucial variables were identified during experimentation, and found to greatly influence the behavior of bulk double emulsions following freeze-thaw cycling. Adjustment of these variables accounted for a more efficient release of the encapsulated protein.