Abstract:To solve the problem of low solubility and poor transdermal performance of quercetin, Polyol-in-oil-in-water(P/O/W) double Pickering emulsions were prepared to encapsulate quercetin with hydrophobic silica AEROSIL?R202 and hydrophilic silica AEROSIL?200 as emulsifiers, dipropylene glycol and glycerol as polyol phases. The effects of mass fraction of internal polyol phase (dipropylene glycol and glycerol), mass fraction of hydrophobic silica AEROSIL?R202, water-to-primary emulsion ratio, and mass fraction of hydrophilic silica AEROSIL?200 on the P/O/W double Pickering emulsion were investigated, and the best preparation conditions were: mass fraction of internal alcohol phase〔m(glycerol):m(dipropylene glycol)=6:4〕was 20%, mass fraction of hydrophobic silica was 3%, water-to-emulsion ratio m(water):m(primary emulsion)=5:5, and mass fraction of hydrophilic silica was 2%. Confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) observation proved that the P/O/W double Pickering emulsions were successfully prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the crystalline peak of quercetin disappeared after being encapsulated by the double emulsions, indicating that the double emulsions had a good encapsulation effect on quercetin. The drug loading efficiency of the P/O/W double emulsion loaded with quercetin determined by centrifugation reached (0.45 ± 0.02) %. The in vitro transdermal experiment and pigskin CLSM showed that the transdermal performance of quercetin after the double emulsion encapsulation improved, this is mainly due to the fact that the solubility of quercetin in the internal alcohol phase〔m (glycerol):m (dipropylene glycol) = 6:4〕can reach 60±2.1 mg/g, which is much greater than that in water (<0.5 μg/g/g). g) or solubility in oil (<1 mg/g).