Investigation of the Preparation of Iron Sulfate-loaded Niosomes by an Experimental Novel Method

Iron is an essential nutrient in the human diet, its presence is necessary and its deficiency causes many problems in the body, including anemia. Oral iron supplements are often ineffectively absorbed and potentially cause adverse effects in the gastrointestinal tract primarily due to the oxidative toxicity of iron. Iron encapsulation in nanocarrier systems reduces organoleptic problems and protects iron against oxidation caused by external factors, and also improves its bioavailability and intestinal absorption. In this research, niosomes loaded with iron sulfate were prepared using surfactant span 60 and Tween 80 by thin film hydration method. Cholesterol and 1-Dodecanol were used as stabilizers in different ratios. Physical-chemical properties of Niosomes loaded with iron sulfate, such as particle size, dispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, and encapsulation efficiency (EE%), were investigated. The size of the vesicles ranged from 453.1 ± 0.1 to 3276 ± 1 nm, encapsulation efficiency from 75–93.73%, zeta potential from 6.3 ± 0.1 to -9.91 mV, and particle size distribution (PDI) from 0.004 to 0.59 with pH = 6.8 phosphate buffer solution. F1 Formula with a ratio of 1:10 for surfactant: cholesterol, a ratio of 0.75:0.25 for Tween 80: Span 60, 1 mM iron sulfate, 10 cc dichloromethane solvent and a sonication time of 5 minutes, with efficiency 90 ± 1, particle size of 546.8 ± 0.5 nm, zeta potential of 5.5 ± 0.1 and PDI = 0.57 ± 0.01 was introduced as the optimal formula.