Caracterização Físico e química de micropartículas à base de xilana

Abstract

Xylan is a biopolymer extracted from cell wall of vegetables, especially cereals, such as corn cobs. Because it is not degraded on the upper gastrointestinal tract, xylan has been explored by food industries in order to stimulate the gastrointestinal motility. However, it can also be used for drug delivery in the colon due to the degradation by enzymes produced by the colonic microflora. The objective of this work was to produce and characterize xylan-based microparticles (XBM). The microcapsules were prepared by interfacial cross-linking polymerization with terephthaloyl chloride as a cross-linking agent. The XBM were characterized by dynamic laser scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (DRX), Fourier transform infrared technique (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). SEM analysis showed not only fragile and oblong structures, but also many broken XBM, probably due to the stress of the lyophilization process. The XRD and FT-IR results demonstrated that XBM is a crystalline system linked by a reaction involving a halogen bond and an aril radical. After the cross-linking reaction between xylan and the cross-linking agent, a thermal homogeneous material was obtained as demonstrated by the TGA. Additionally, the xylan-based microparticles are systems that should be improved to their utilization on food and pharmaceutical industries.