Table 2.
Drug loading and loading efficiency (mean ± SEM) into zein microparticles formulated using various combinations of zein and hydrocortisone, with the coefficient of variation (%CV) for within and between replicates. One-way factorial ANOVA with a post hoc Bonferroni multiple comparisons test was used to compare selected means (p < 0.05).
| Zein (mg) | Drug (mg) | Ratio | %CV | Total mean ± SEM | Total %CV | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rep 1 | Rep 2 | Rep 3 | |||||
| Hydrocortisone loading (w/w%) | |||||||
| 800 | 200 | 4 | 7.71 | 15.43 | 3.01 | 5.41 ± 0.60 a | 19 |
| 600 | 150 | 4 | 7.41 | 2.97 | 1.90 | 4.72 ± 0.05 ab | 2 |
| 200 | 50 | 4 | 5.66 | 3.98 | 21.67 | 2.84 ± 0.25 b | 16 |
| 400 | 200 | 2 | 1.07 | 7.36 | 6.37 | 2.69 ± 0.08 x | 5 |
| 400 | 150 | 2.7 | 5.25 | 4.87 | 7.98 | 3.68 ± 0.86 x | 40 |
| 400 | 100 | 4 | 10.11 | 1.95 | 9.44 | 3.31 ± 0.20 b,x | 11 |
| 400 | 50 | 8 | 3.11 | 8.16 | 8.49 | 3.66 ± 0.28 x | 13 |
| 400 | 25 | 16 | 2.18 | 25.09 | 11.25 | 3.77 ± 0.44 x | 20 |
| Hydrocortisone loading efficiency (w/w%) | |||||||
| 800 | 200 | 4 | 6.66 | 12.64 | 3.42 | 33.13 ± 4.55 A | 24 |
| 600 | 150 | 4 | 4.28 | 2.80 | 2.38 | 27.47 ± 2.28 AB | 14 |
| 200 | 50 | 4 | 8.31 | 1.56 | 27.00 | 16.03 ± 1.38 B | 15 |
| 400 | 200 | 2 | 4.40 | 10.47 | 11.18 | 9.44 ± 0.17 X | 3 |
| 400 | 150 | 2.7 | 5.53 | 1.48 | 19.01 | 14.54 ± 2.63 X | 31 |
| 400 | 100 | 4 | 26.98 | 7.51 | 19.66 | 20.66 ± 0.39 B,X | 3 |
| 400 | 50 | 8 | 5.16 | 6.05 | 4.27 | 40.55 ± 1.64 Y | 7 |
| 400 | 25 | 16 | 1.98 | 3.78 | 1.27 | 84.18 ± 2.40 Z | 5 |
Means were grouped as follows for statistical analysis, with the means that were not significantly different at p < 0.05 assigned the same letter: varying quantities with constant ratio of zein and hydrocortisone (a–b, A–B), constant quantity of zein with varying hydrocortisone quantity (x, X–Z).