Abstract
Quercetin (QC) was reacted with glycerol diglycidyl ether (GDE) to obtain poly(quercetin) particles (p(QC)) for the first time via a simple microemulsion polymerization/crosslinking method using L-alpha lecithin as surfactant and cyclohexane as organic phase. The prepared p(QC) particles were highly negatively charged (-48.2 mV), were thermally more stable in comparison to QC and degradable in PBS at pH 7.4., e.g., 10 wt% can degrade in about 15 h. The prepared p(QC) particles showed antibacterial characteristics against common bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Escherichia coli ATCC 8739 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25323. Additionally, p(QC) was found to have significant antioxidant properties that is equivalent to 82.5 +/- 9.6 mg/L gallic acid. More interestingly p(QC) particles retain some of their fluorescence and can be used both as antibacterial and antioxidant materials providing great potential for biomedical use. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
