Stability improvement of 1'-Acetoxychavicol acetate for anti-obesity efficacy

Abstract

This work improves the stability of 1́-acetoxychavicol acetate (ACA), a major active component extracted from the rhizome of Alpinia galangal or Galangal by encapsulating the material into microparticles fabricated from a 0.7:1 (w/w) blend of Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and paraffin wax. The prepared microparticles showed spherical shape, with the size around 5-10 µm. The process gave encapsulation efficiency of more than 60%, and the water dispersible particles possessed loading capacity of 30%. The ACA-loaded microparticles showed slower degradation of ACA at the high temperature when compared to the non-encapsulated ACA. The ACA-loaded microparticles showed significantly reduced triglyceride (TG) accumulation in 3T3-L1 derived adipocytes and lower proliferation of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes compared to the non-encapsulated ACA, blank microparticle and the degraded ACA. In vitro toxicity test in 3T3-L1 preadipocytes demonstrated that ACA-loaded microparticles were non-toxic to the cells. In vivo test using 40 mice indicated that mice fed high fat diet (HFD) together with ACA-loaded microparticles gained less weight than mice fed only HFD. Thus, microencapsulated ACA is a potential anti-obesity agent.