Extrusion 3D printing of nutraceutical oral dosage forms formulated with monoglycerides oleogels and phytosterols mixtures

Abstract

Among the potential applications of 3D printing, the development of products with personalized characteristics in the area of food and nutraceuticals represents an important field that must still be explored. The aim of this work was to evaluate the production of nutraceutical oral forms by extrusion-based 3D printing (E3DP) using mixtures of monoglycerides (MG) oleogels and phytosterols (PS) as printing materials. These materials were obtained using MG (10 or 20 %wt), high oleic sunflower oil and variable amounts of PS (20 - 50 %wt PS/oleogel). An ad-hoc extrusion 3D printer composed of a heated syringe and a cooling build platform was used. Rheological tests were carried out to determine the mixtures gel point, in order to select appropriate printing temperatures, as well as the yield stress of the final materials. Hardness of printed forms was obtained by compression tests. Additionally, oral forms were produced by manual extrusion using molds for comparison. It was found that oral forms were successfully printed when using mixtures containing a maximum of 30 and 40 %wt PS/oleogel for oleogels formulated with 10 and 20 %wt of MG, respectively. Moreover, the best printed forms corresponded to the mixtures with the lowest gelation temperatures. These printed forms were structurally stable, with uniform weight and shape, and maximum hardness of 12.55 N. Hardness values of printed oral forms did not show a correlation with those obtained by manual extrusion using molds, indicating that this parameter was affected by solid composition, cooling rate and the fragility generated for layers superposition. In conclusion, it was demonstrated that mixtures of MG oleogels and PS can be used for E3DP production of nutraceutical oral forms suggesting that oleogels have excellent potential as materials able to incorporate liposoluble active ingredients to be used as extrusion printing materials.