In this project, nanotechnology and chemical analysis techniques will be used in order to develop, characterize and optimize formulations of essential oils, with the specific aim of enhancing the antiproliferative effect of essential oils already known for their biological activities. Typically, the use of nanotechnology to develop formulations of essential oils with applications in human health is getting popular among researchers looking for promising alternatives for the treatment of various diseases. Anyway, these formulations are usually poorly characterized for their composition. To this end, chemical analysis methods will be developed in this project to perform a qualitative and quantitative control of the volatile profile of the formulations containing the essential oil. The analyses will be fundamental to verify the absence of alterations in the chemical composition or to highlight any changes so as to be able to guarantee its therapeutic efficacy. Different formulations and production processes will be performed with the ultimate goal of maximizing the formulation delivery capacity. Considering that most of the techniques used for the preparation of nanosystems involve heating or evaporation phases of the solvents, which can alterate the chemical profile of the essential oil, it will be crucial to characterize the essential oil before the formulation and immediately after so as to trace the chemical profile of both and to make a comparison. Until now, this aspect has not been much studied. Therefore, the endpoint of this project consists in evaluating the effectiveness of the formulation carried out on the antiproliferative properties of Lavandula x intermedia (lavandin) essential oil whose antibacterial and citotoxic properties have already been highlighted. The physical-chemical properties of the formulations obtained will be investigated as well as the cytotoxic activity of the pure and encapsulated essential oil.
In this project encapsulation in nanocarriers is proposed to enhance the antiproliferative activity of lavandin essential oil. Essential oils have various critical challenges, which hindered their effective application in pharmaceutic, cosmetic and food field. The lipophilic and volatile components of essential oils are susceptible to polymerization and oxidative deterioration during storage that may change the functional composition of active constituents as well as their biological properties. Several reports have demonstrated that the application of nanotechnology to develop encapsulated essential oil formulations could enhance their effectiveness. Therefore, the recent advancement in nanotechnology offers great opportunity to develop novel carrier agents for the delivery and control release of essential oils with enhanced chemical, oxidative and thermal stability. Although, nanoencapsulation is one of the promising tools for effective delivery of essential oils, the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the composition of essential oils after their entrapment into nanocarriers-based formulations are yet poorly explored. Hence, the impact of the formulation process on the composition of the essential oils need to be carefully investigated before their effective application. In fact, a crucial and not very considered and investigated point in the realization of formulations of natural products, concerns the verification of the conservation of the properties of the substances present in the original extracts. In this regard, it is fundamental to trace the chemical profile of the essential oil before and after the formulation to to verify that there has not been an alteration of the composition or to highlight any changes in the chemical profile. In fact, the different preparation techniques of essential oil formulations are characterized by several passages including heating and evaporation steps which could alter the chemical composition of the extract due to loss of the more volatile compounds. Therefore, to finalize a controlled formulation it is very important to verify the loss or the possible modification of the analytes through the qualitative and quantitative characterization of the pure encapsulated in nanosystems in nanosystems essential oil. So far this aspect has not been much investigated. Many publications do not report any analytical assay assuming that the encapsulation does not involve any change in the content of natural compounds in the extract. Therefore, the main endpoint of this project is the evaluation of the effect of the applied formulation technologies on the antiproliferative activity of Lavandula x intermedia (lavandin) essential oil.