Desenvolvimento e caracterização de micropartículas do polímero do cajueiro (Anacardium occidentale L.) pela técnica de reticulação polimérica interfacial com trimetafosfato de sódio.

Abstract

The development of new systems of release of drugs has been growing concomitantly with the advancement of technology and are of paramount importance to achieve the therapeutic effect in a more efficient manner. Among these systems are the microparticles, which are obtained through a microencapsulation process which comprises a set of techniques which enable the drug to be encapsulated with various types of polymers and thus offer a number of advantages such as: protection the encapsulated material against the presence of moisture and oxygen, the capacity to minimize adverse effects, the possibility to mask unpleasant organoleptic characteristics and the capacity to modulate the rates of liberation of drug. Northeast, more precisely the state of Paraíba, presents large cashew plantations and thus presents itself as a potential alternative of income for small farmers in harvest periods. Cashew gum is a complex heteropolysaccharide exuded from cashew tree (Anacardium occidentale L.) this gum, has physico-chemical characteristics that may be useful in attainment of new pharmaceutical inputs and pharmaceutical forms. Thus, this work had as objective to develop microparticles composed on the polymer extracted from cashew gum through of interfacial polymeric crosslinking method using the sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) as a crosslinking agent. In the characterization of these microparticles, were used parameters such as pH (6.0-6.5), granulometry (9.6 μm at 210.8 μm), stability (by means of aqueous), concentration of the crosslinking agent and differents agitation speed. Microparticles were produced with predominantly spherical shape and well distributed individually. This work demonstrated that it is possible to produce microparticles of cashew gum by the described method.