**5. Conclusions**

Two formulations for curcumin were presented in this study, for the purpose of improving the poor bioavailability of the substance. By attaching curcumin to water-soluble polysaccharide aerogels, the dissolution and consequently bioavailability was tremendously improved. While pure curcumin showed almost no dissolution after 24 h, the complete dissolution and release of curcumin from pectin aerogels was achieved after only 3 h and from pectin aerogels coated with an outer layer of chitosan after 24 h. A new coating procedure for pectin aerogels was developed for the purpose of optimizing the release of curcumin (and other active substances as well).

Both formulations proved to be useful for improving the problematic bioavailability of curcumin. On one hand, the pectin aerogels formulation showed burst release. On the other, pectin aerogels coated with chitosan showed controlled release of curcumin over 24 h and maintained a therapeutic dose of the substance.

**Author Contributions:** M.P. wrote the main manuscript text and planned and performed most of the experiments. G.H. helped with characterization of the materials and wrote part of the manuscript. Z.N. and Ž.K. supervised the findings of this work and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Special thanks to the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) for financial support of the research programme group P2–0046: Separation Processes and Production Design and research project L2-9199: Purification and Formulation of Chemicals Using Supercritical Fluids.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
