Protection and viability of fruit seeds oils by nanostructured lipid carrier (NLC) nanosuspensions

In this paper, we focused on the development of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) for dermal application. The NLC matrix was designed as a protective reservoir of biological active compounds that naturally occur in domestic fruit seed oils. Over the years, emulsions, as a popular physicochemical form of personal care products, were refined in order to obtain the best possible penetration into the skin of any bioactive compound introduced in the formulation, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). In fact, the bioactive components are useful only if they are able to penetrate the skin unchanged. Therefore, an alternate way to deliver naturally occurring PUFAs is needed. NLCs present a novel delivery and protection system for the PUFAs. The cold pressed fruit seed oils obtained from waste material were used in this paper: blackcurrant, blackberry, raspberry, strawberry and plum. Thermodynamic (DSC) and structural techniques ((1)H NMR) were applied in order to characterize the obtained systems in terms of seed oil incorporation into the NLC, and oxidative stability tests were used to confirm the protective quality of the systems. During the formulation optimization process the most stable nanosuspension with the best seed oil incorporation was a mixture of 4% nonionic emulsifiers, 88% water and 6% lipids with a ratio of 6:2, wax:oil. The oxidative stability tests showed that the NLC was an effective method of protection of the PUFAs.