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Turmeric (Curcuma longa) has been long recognized for its anti-inflammatory properties against a wide variety of conditions.
However, it’s practical applications have been limited due to the instability under thermal and UV radiation. There had been only
few attempts to stabilize turmeric. There-fore, this study focuses on exploring the potential of nanotechnology based approaches to
stabilize the natural turmeric and to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of the resulting nanohybrids. In this study, natural turmeric has
been encapsulated into nano layers present in Mg-Al-Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) using a simple co-precipitation method. The
suggested method avoids any isolation of active compounds, i.e. curcumin from natural turmeric. The LDHs selectively encapsulate
curcumin during the synthesis process. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) characterization
confirmed the successful synthesis and encapsulation of curcumin into LDH. Thermogravimetric data and UV stability data
confirmed the stabilization of the curcumin molecules within the LDH layers. Drug release characteristics of the nanohybrid was
quantitatively monitored under different pH (3 & 5) conditions using UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy. Finally, the antimicrobial
activity of turmeric-LDH nanohybrid was tested against three bacterial species including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923),
Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 25853) and two fungal species such as Candida albicans (ATCC
10231) and Candida dubliniensis(clinical isolate) using agar well diffusion method. The results show that the drug release of turmeric
encapsulated LDH was a slow process, suggesting that the intercalated nanohybrid can be used as an efficient drug formulation.
