ENTRAPMENT AND RELEASE CHARACTERISTICS OF 2-METHOXYNAPHTHALENE FROM CYLINDRICAL MICROSTRUCTURES FORMED FROM PHOSPHOLIPIDS

Many natural products that exhibit biocidal activity have poor solubil ity in water. In order to explore the prolonged delivery of these comp ounds from microtubules we have utilized 2-methoxynaphthalene as a mod el to elucidate release characteristics of hydrophobic compounds entra pped in microtubules by spectrophotometric absorbance at 255 nm. Entra pment of this compound in microcylinders was accomplished by addition of 2-methoxynaphthalene to a water-soluble epoxy, or entrapment of the neat compound. Variation of the release rate is possible for 2-methox ynaphthalene based on the mode of entrapment and by variations in the methods used to immobilize the compound within the microcylinders. Unl ike conventional microencapsulation techniques which require inclusion of the active agent at the time of formation, the use of microcylinde rs allows for the inclusion of a variety of active agents and the tail oring of release characteristics after their formation. We report the results of in vitro release rates of 2-methoxynaphthalene from a stati c diffusion system designed to explore release of hydrophobic compound s into an aqueous environment.