Development of New Babassu Oil Lipidic Nanostructured Systems; Potential Alternative for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia Therapy

This study investigates new lipidic nanocarrier preparations for production of babassu oil formulations, which are indicated as less radical herbal therapeutic alternatives for the prevention of benign prostatic hyperplasia. The babassu oil was obtained in high yield using the previously studied, reproducible soxlhet extraction process. We investigated the preparation of nanostructured babassu oil lipid carriers and babassu oil nanoemulsions, to determine conditions that yield a high percentage of babassu oil encapsulation, have appropriate size distribution and zeta potential for vectorization of babassu oil to the prostate. Cytotoxicity tests were performed using intestinal epithelial Caco-2 cells and J-774 macrophages, which indicated that nanostructured lipid carriers for babassu oil are not toxic to front Caco-2 cells and are able to reduce J774 cell viability. This indicates their potential use for treatment against inflammatory processes such as prostatitis and for administration through the oral route. Whereas, in previous studies conducted by our research group, other babassu oil nanosystems showed activity when tested in cell strains of human benign prostatic hyperplasia lineage. The new babassu oil nanostructured lipid carriers prepared in this study can be used as a new prototype for phytotherapic nanoformulations for the prophylaxis of prostate pathologies, since they are highly lipophilic, have narrow size distribution and have low toxicity.