Development of a Curcumin-Loaded Lecithin/Chitosan Nanoparticle Utilizing a Box-Behnken Design of Experiment: Formulation Design and Influence of Process Parameters

Curcumin (CUR) has impressive pharmacologic properties, including cardioprotective, neuroprotective, antimicrobial, and anticancer activity. However, the pharmaceutical application of CUR is limited due to its poor aqueous solubility and low bioavailability. The development of novel formulations has attracted considerable attention to the idea of applying nanobiotechnology to improve the therapeutic efficacy of these challenging compounds. In this study, CUR-loaded lecithin–chitosan nanoparticles (CUR/LCSNPs) were developed and optimized by the concentration of chitosan, lecithin, and stirring speed by a 3-factorial Box-Behnken statistical design, resulting in an optimal concentration of chitosan (A) and lecithin (B) with a 1200 rpm stirring speed (C), with applied constraints of minimal average particle size (Y₁), optimal zeta potential (Y₂), and maximum entrapment efficiency (%EE) (Y₃). The mean particle size of the checkpoint formulation ranged from 136.44 ± 1.74 nm to 267.94 ± 3.72, with a zeta potential of 18.5 ± 1.39 mV to 36.8 ± 3.24 mV and %EE of 69.84 ± 1.51% to 78.50 ± 2.11%. The mean particle size, zeta potential, %EE, and % cumulative drug release from the optimized formulation were 138.43 ± 2.09 nm, +18.98 ± 0.72 mV, 77.39 ± 1.70%, and 86.18 ± 1.5%, respectively. In vitro drug release followed the Korsmeyer–Peppas model with Fickian diffusion (n < 0.45). The optimized technique has proven successful, resulting in a nanoformulation that can be used for the high loading and controlled release of lipophilic drugs.