Quercetin/β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex embedded nanofibres: Slow release and high solubility.

Electrospinning of polyacrylic acid (PAA) nanofibres (NF) incorporating β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex (β-CD-IC) of quercetin (QU) was performed. Here, β-CD was used as not only the crosslinking agent for PAA nanofibres but also as a host molecule for inclusion of QU. The phase solubility test showed enhanced solubility of QU due to the inclusion complexation; in addition, the stoichiometry of QU/β-CD-IC was determined to be 1:1. Computational modelling studies confirmed that 1:1 and 1:2 complex formation are desirable; 1:1 complex formation was chosen to have higher weight loading of QU. SEM images showed that PAA/QU/β-CD-IC-NF were bead-free and uniform. XRD indicated that PAA/QU/β-CD-IC-NF were amorphous in nature without the crystalline peaks of QU. Comparative results revealed that the release profile of QU from PAA/QU/β-CD-IC-NF was much slower but greater in total than from PAA/QU/β-CD-IC-film. Moreover, high antioxidant activity and photostability of QU was achieved in PAA/QU/β-CD-IC-NF.