Development and Characterization of Silk Fibroin-based Oral Films Containing Turmeric Extract as Dietary Supplement

Dietary supplements have extreme importance. Due to the easily degradable nature of these supplements, the development and application of carrier systems in food technologies seem to be extremely important. Today, oral film technologies have gained importance due to their rapid and high absorption properties. This study chose silk fibroin (SF) as the main component due to its high biocompatibility. Turmeric extract has been added to the oral films as an active agent. The prepared films were analyzed with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to reveal their morphological properties, and at the same time, the film thickness was measured. It has been found that the increase in extract amount is a factor that causes an increase in film roughness while causing a decrease in phase separation. It was observed that the film roughness increased twice with the addition of extract. The roughness of the films formed with 15% extract was measured as 28.5. The average roughness of the films formed without the use of extracts was observed as 15.7 mm. It was also observed that the Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) was doubled for films containing 15% turmeric extract after one hour of release. The films exhibited different weight loss profiles after release as the amount of turmeric extract was changed. Disc diffusion experiments revealed that films containing turmeric extract exhibited antimicrobial effects.