The prime objective of this work was to formulate selenium nano-
particles, surface decorate them with phenyl alanine to impart colon tar-
geting ability and load the particles with mesalamine. The colon targeted 
selenium nanoparticles were prepared by placing phenyl alanine on the 
surface of the selenium nanoparticles and then loading mesalamine on 
the surface of PA-d-SeNPs to produce PA-Se@Mes nanoparticles. The 
characteristic peaks of selenium nanoparticles (3555.92 for OH stretch, 
3107.48 & 2943.50 for CH stretch, C-C stretch at 1465.96) were present 
in PA-d-SeNPs also. Additionally, a characteristic amide linkage (1712.86) 
was also visible confirming surface attachment of phenyl alanine. The 
colorimetric estimation revealed an attachment of 69.1% phenyl alanine 
on the surface of the nanoparticles. The yield of the nanoparticles was 
found to be in the range of 60-65%. The average drug loading was found 
to be 14.6 ± 0.21% whereas the average encapsulation efficiency was 
found to be 31.8 ± 0.37 %. The average particle size of selenium nanopar-
ticles, PA-d-SeNPs and PA-Se@Mes was found to be 212.7, 140.6, 104.2 
nm respectively. The zeta potential of the PA-Se@Mes was found to be -
16.0 ± 3.70 mV. It was found that 85.19% mesalamine was released from 
PA-Se@Mes in presence of rat caecal content after 24 hours while only 
69.31% was released in absence of rat caecal content, suggesting colon 
targeting. 

Selenium  ,  Mesalamine   ,   Nanoparticles ,  Targeting  ,  Colon 

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