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Carboxymethylation Of Kappa-Carrageenan For Intestinal-Targeted Delivery Of Bioactive Macromolecules, Kok Hoong Leong

Kok Hoong Leong

The work presented herein discusses the carboxymethylation of kappa-carrageenan, a natural linear polysaccharide, to afford a pH-dependent swelling property allowing for intestinal-targeted delivery of bioactive macromolecules. The carboxymethylation conditions with respect to the volume and concentration of sodium hydroxide (VNaOH, CNaOH), weight of monochloroacetic acid (WMCA), and reaction temperature (T) were optimized using a response surface method incorporating a multivariate spline interpolation technique (RSMS). Fluorescein isothiocyanate-labeled dextran (FD-4; 4.4 kDa) was used as a hydrophilic macromolecule model. Beads made from encapsulating FD-4 in the carboxymethylated kappa-carrageenan displayed pH-dependent swelling and encapsulation efficiency of 74%. The release of FD-4 was low …