In this study anti-hypertensive drug called aliskiren was encapsulated in magnetic poly(D,L-lactide) nanoparticles by the modified nanoprecipitation method. The effect of magnetite and drug concentrations on the size distribution and zeta potential of polymer nanoparticles was investigated. The optimized loadings were as follows: theoretical magnetite loading was 20 mg/100 mg polymer nanoparticles and aliskiren was encapsulated in magnetic poly(D,L-lactide) nanoparticles at theoretical loading 0.6 mg aliskiren/100 mg magnetic polymer nanoparticles. The physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles were studied, with spherical shape of nanoparticles sized between 58 and 227 nm being one of the observed results. Differential scanning calorimetry and infrared spectroscopy confirmed that aliskiren was successfully identified in the magnetic poly(D,L-lactide) nanoparticles. The in vivo experiments indicated that encapsulated aliskiren decreased blood pressure of the studied male spontaneously hypertensive rat even more significantly than common administered drug. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved