A new strategy in improving therapeutic indexes of medicinal herbs: preparation and characterization of nano-liposomes containing Mentha piperita essential oil

Introduction: Herbal Compound and their essential oils possess high antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-tumor properties, but conventional prescribing of them faces serious challenges. Liposomal nano-carrier is one of the common pharmaceutical strategies to overcome these challenges. In this study, slow-released liposomal system containing Mentha piperita's essential oil was prepared in order to improve its antimicrobial, antioxidant and antitumor properties. Methods: Liposomal vesicles were prepared using phosphatidylcholine (80%) and cholesterol (20%) by thin-film method. Mentha piperita's essential oil were loaded into the liposomes using inactive loading method. Their physico-chemical features were assayed using Zeta-Sizer, FTIR and SEM, and at the end, the essential oil release amount was calculated at 37° C. Results: Liposomal vesicles containing Mentha piperita's essential oil showed the size of 247 13.39 nm, 61.38% ± 2.7 essential oil encapsulation efficiency, -34.54 0.74 mV of zeta potential and polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.32 .01. The prepared liposomal system presented essential oil controlled release and FTIR and SEM investigation showed no interaction between nanocarrier and the essential oil and the carriers have spherical structures. Conclusion: In the present study, Mentha piperita's essential oil encapsulated in liposomal carriers and its physicochemical properties investigated. The results confrimed the slow-releasing ability of system and also showed that the anionic nanosystem increased the essential oil's stability without any change in its chemical nature. Taken together, liposomal nanocarrier could be a potent and suitable carrier for the essential oil.