Book of abstracts Chimici per le Biotecnologie 2023

The increased consumer demand for natural body care products has driven academic and industrial research towards the development of innovative products from raw materials made available by nature. In this perspective, Erbagil srl (Telese Terme, BN, Italy) has developed innovative medical devices based on OZOILE®. OZOILE® is a pool of molecules obtained by a patented ozonation process, in which ozone binds to the olefinic bonds of extra virgin olive oil +Oil® forming stable ozonides. In this process, ozone is produced from medical oxygen and olive oil obtained from native Sannio (Benevento, Italy) olive cultivars grown organically and treated with Ozogea®, a corroborant also produced by Erbagil srl and based on ozonated +Oil®, an enhancer of the plants' natural defences, for a circular process in which nature cures nature. This generates a product, OZOILE®, that includes the relevant properties of the unsaponifiable portion of extra virgin olive oil, in particular the polyphenolic fraction, not involved in the ozonation process, in addition to the beneficial effects of ozone, already widely recognised by the scientific world. The first advantage is the availability of a fairly stable form of ozone that lends itself to a wide range of medicinal applications, not only in hospitals but especially “at home”. Although OZOILE® and OZOILE®-based products already have extensive scientific documentation attesting to their various curative properties, other formulations with specific carriers are being studied to broaden their possible applications in the clinical field. Natural and biodegradable polymers with pH-sensitive properties, such as alginate and chitosan, are widely used in drug delivery applications, especially in the form of biocompatible microspheres, and thermo-reactive poly(N-isopropyl- acrylamide) (PNIPAM) is frequently used in biomedical delivery systems. In this work, hydrogel multi-responsive microspheres (MRM) based on alginate, chitosan and PNIPAM were fabricated by extrusion dripping and used as an OZOILE® carrier system. Chemical composition by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermo-reactive properties by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), swelling and degradation behaviour were analysed. Tests performed on MRM/OZOILE® unveiled the influence of the chitosan coating in delaying the release of OZOILE®. Thus, the results in terms of thermo-pH-responsive behaviour, swelling and degradation reveal the potential use of MRM for the therapeutic release of OZOILE®at specific inflammatory sites.