Production of carrier/antioxidant particles by Supercritical Assisted Atomization as an adjuvant treatment of the CoVID-19 pathology

The 2019 coronavirus outbreak caused a global health emergency. Some therapeutic strategies for this pathology focus on natural compounds, such as flavonoids, because of their antimicrobial and antiviral properties. However, the therapeutic efficacy of these active compounds is limited by their low bioavailability. In this paper, composite systems consisting of the flavonoid and a carrier were produced by Supercritical Assisted Atomization to increase these compounds’ dissolution rate. Luteolin, rutin, and naringenin were selected as model flavonoids, and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin and polyvinylpyrrolidone were chosen as the carriers. Hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin was the most suitable carrier, in terms of recovery, morphology/size of the particles, and dissolution rate of the active compound. At the best operating conditions, the dissolution rate of the active principle is speeded for all the flavonoids: in particular, if compared to the virgin materials, it is 55.8 times faster for luteolin, 3.1 times faster for rutin and 3.4 times faster for naringenin.