A STUDY ON MICROENCAPSULATION OF TAMOXIFENA BREAST CANCER DRUG IN CITRUS PECTIN
Today outbreak of Breast cancer is becoming a common disease. At the preliminary stage, it can be curable using chemotherapeutic drug. But intake of drug orally as such creates a wide variety of side effects. In order to compromise such fact, in the present investigation. Tamoxifen a drug under use for the treatment of breast cancer was encapsulated in a pectin microsphere, a natural biopolymer. Pectin isolated from the dried citrus peel was characterized along with the control using physical characteristics such as colour, consistency, odour, pH and moisture content. The yield of the pectin was significantly larger. The purity of pectin was confirmed using carbohydrate identification test. Finally both the control and the test pectin had low methoxyl content and confirmed to be pure by %AUA(63.466±0.152 % for control & 52.60±0.2 % for test). Finally it was confirmed using FTIR by the presence of peak representing COO- group between ranges 1000-2000cm-1. Further microspheres were prepared using control and test pectin. A good yield of microsphere ie. 59.10±0.100% for control pectin and 68.23±0.2% for test pectin were achieved. The rate of entrapment efficiency was calculated as 71.00±1.007% for control pectin and 82.33±1.52% % for test pectin. Finally the entrapment was confirmed using FTIR and SEM analysis