Flavonoid nanocrystals produced by ARTcrystal®-technology.

ARTcrystal(®)-technology is a novel technique for a more efficient production of nanocrystals. It consists of a high speed stirring (HSS) step as pre-milling and subsequent high pressure homogenization (HPH) at reduced pressure and cycle numbers. In this study, three antioxidants, rutin, hesperidin and apigenin, were processed by ARTcrystal(®)-technology, the results were compared to sizes obtained for the production of nanocrystals produced by classical HPH. By using the ARTcrystal(®)-process, all three substances could be transformed into nanosuspensions with mean sizes and PdIs of 431 nm/0.27, 717 nm/0.21 and 262 nm/0.31, respectively. Depending on the properties of the raw material the ARTcrystal(®)-technology revealed similar or even better results than classical HPH. Further optimization of the setup of the HSS process might lead to an optimized process with higher efficacy than classical HPH.