Analytical characterization of a ferulic acid/gamma-cyclodextrin inclusion complex

Ferulic acid (FA) is a well-known antioxidant of natural source with promising properties as photoprotective agent (approved in Japan as sunscreen) and its derivatives (alkyl ferulates) are under screening for the prevention of photoinduced skin tumours. In the present work we describe the preparation of a solid inclusion complex between ferulic acid and -cyclodextrin (-CD) and its characterization by different analytical techniques: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR) and by supporting information of molecular modelling. All these approaches indicate that ferulic acid is able to form an association complex with -CD but only 1H NMR and molecular modelling studies give an unequivocal evidence that the antioxidant molecule is embedded into the -CD cavity to form an inclusion complex. In detail it is entrapped inside the hydrophobic core of -CD with the lipophilic aromatic ring and the ethylenic moieties, leaving the more polar functional groups close to wider rim or outside the cavity.