Dielectric properties of a novel colloidal oral matrix drug carrier.

Dielectric Spectroscopy (DS) was employed to study a novel oral matrix carrier (OMC), composed from silica nano-particles, polysaccharides, biopolymers and natural oils. This composition self-orders to a multi hierarchal structure and as such is amenable to be studied by techniques such as DS. The dielectric properties were measured in the frequency range 1MHz-1GHz and a temperature range 10°C-45°C. The results were dominated by two relaxation processes following CC relaxation and having relaxation times that are Arrhenius in nature. These processes can be traced to structural elements in the OMC and are influenced by the melting point of coconut oil, an essential element in the formulation. Furthermore, the correlations between dipolar entities in the OMC are investigated using Froelich's B function formulation. The results point to DS as an effective tool for the study of these systems.