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- Miconazole-loaded Nanostructured Lipid Carriers (NLC) for local delivery to the oral mucosa: improving antifungal activityPublication . Mendes, A.I.; Silva, Ana Catarina; Catita, José; Cerqueira, Fátima; Gabriel, C.; Lopes, Carla MartinsMiconazole is a widely used antifungal agent with poor aqueous solubility, which requires the development of drug delivery systems able to improve its therapeutic activity. For this purpose, a miconazole-loaded nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) dispersion was prepared and characterized. Further, the dispersion was used to prepare a NLC-based hydrogel formulation proposed as an alternative system to improve the local delivery of miconazole to the oral mucosa. NLC dispersion showed particles in the nanometer range (≈200 nm) with low polidispersity index (<0.3), good physical stability and high encapsulation efficiency (>87%). A controlled miconazole release was observed from NLC and NLCbased hydrogel formulations, in contrast to a commercial oral gel formulation, which demonstrated a faster release. Additionally, it was observed that the encapsulation of miconazole in the NLC improved its antifungal activity against Candida albicans. Therefore, it was demonstrated that the encapsulation of miconazole in NLC allows for obtaining the same therapeutic effect of a commercial oral gel formulation, using a 17-fold lower dose of miconazole.
- Coffee industrial waste as a natural source of bioactive compounds with antibacterial and antifungal activitiesPublication . Silva, Carla Sousa e; Gabriel, Carla; Cerqueira, Fátima; Manso, M. Conceição; Vinha, A. F.Coffee is one of the most popular and consumed beverages in the world, which leads to a high contents of solid residue known as spent coffee grounds (SCG). As is known, coffee beans contain several classes of health related chemicals, including phenolic compounds, melanoidins, diterpenes, xanthines and carotenoids which are associated with therapeutic and pharmaceutical effects, due to antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-infectious and antitumour activities. Considering that this coffee industrial waste has no commercial value and are currently disposed as a solid waste or employed as fertilizers, we intend to highlight the use of SCG as a raw material with potential interest to the food and pharmaceutical industries. Moreover, this work seems to be valuable to promote the use of SCG as natural and an inexpensive food supplements or pharmaceutical additive. The phytochemical compounds content among the crude aqueous extracts of SCG followed this order: phenolics > flavonoids > carotenoids (mg/ g dry waste), respectively. Caffeine content found in SCG was ~ 0.82 g/100 g dry waste, 70 % lower than coffee roasting beans. Coffee ground extracts showed inhibition to S. aureus and E. coli growth for concentrations of 1.0 mg/ mL and a stronger inhibition was also observed against C. albicans, C. krusei and C. parapsilosis growth using lower concentration (0.5 mg/ mL).