Design and development of nanovehicle-based delivery of flavonoids

I have been battling against a virus of some sort in the past couple of days…it’s probably the same one that I had last week and that I thought I had conquered (guess not!). As luck would have it, it is not a terribly malevolent one…I haven’t developed a fever or cough, e.g., perhaps thanks to the Sambucol…the main consequence of this inner battle is fatigue. Today I feel much better, though, much more like my normal self. I haven’t even had a nap so far…a huge step in the right direction!

This morning, in fact, I was busy making plans to get together with “old” university buddies a couple of days after Xmas (btw, I can’t believe today is already December 1st, how did that happen?). This is a group of Italians, Tuscans for the most part. You see, after graduating from (Italian) high school, I attended the university of Florence for a couple of years before moving back to the U.S. where I finished my undergraduate studies, worked for a while, then went on to do an M.A. and Ph.D. Throughout the years, I remained in touch with a couple of my closest Italian university friends…oh, to make a long story short, we are finally getting together with a few other class members for tea and a potluck supper. It will be quite a crowd….and I haven’t seen some of them in more than 20 years! I am happy to note, though, that, from the tone of the e-mail exchanges we had this morning, we all seem to have kept our sense of humour intact, so this reunion should be heaps of fun!

Okay, let’s move on to another, more interesting!, topic. My brain isn’t up for doing much research yet, but I did want to share an interesting titbit recently published in a journal called “Current Medicinal Chemistry”: http://tinyurl.com/ycobmz4 As we can read in the abstract (I don’t have the full study), there are more than 4000 flavonoids out there. FOUR…THOUSAND??? To date I have researched only 25 or so anti-myeloma compounds…that means I still have another 3,975 substances left! Boyohboy, I’d better get cracking!

The abstract briefly discusses how “nanovectors” can protect various beneficial compounds (such as curcumin!) from being attacked during the journey through our gastrointestinal tract. Well, that would obviously be a huge help.

While I am on this topic, a blog reader recently asked me if I had a reliable source for nanocurcumin. My answer is no, even though from time to time I receive links to different products, including some nanocurcumin ones. I haven’t posted about any of ‘em simply because I don’t know if they are any good…

Nope, until the nano-delivery technology has been thoroughly tested, I am sticking to the old “non-nano” systems of C3 Complex capsules/powder. That doesn’t mean that I am not interested in nano-stuff. I am. But with a degree of caution…