Abstract
β-carotene loaded bio-based nanoparticles (NPs) were produced by the solvent-displacement method using two polymers: zein and ethylcellulose. The production of NPs was optimised through an experimental design and characterised in terms of average size and polydispersity index. The processing conditions that allowed to obtain NPs (<100 nm) were used for β-carotene encapsulation. Then β-carotene loaded NPs were characterised in terms of zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency. Transmission electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were performed for further morphological and chemical characterisation. In the end, a static in vitro digestion following the INFOGEST protocol was performed and the bioaccessibility of β-carotene encapsulated in both NPs was determined. Results show that the best conditions for a size-controlled production with a narrow size distribution are lower polymer concentrations and higher antisolvent concentrations. The encapsulation of β-carotene in ethylcellulose NPs resulted in nanoparticles with a mean average size of 60 ± 9 nm and encapsulation efficiency of 74 ± 2%. β-carotene loaded zein-based NPs resulted in a mean size of 83 ± 8 nm and encapsulation efficiency of 93 ± 4%. Results obtained from the in vitro digestion showed that β-carotene bioaccessibility when encapsulated in zein NPs is 37 ± 1%, which is higher than the value of 8.3 ± 0.1% obtained for the ethylcellulose NPs.
Highlights
Nanoencapsulation is presented as one of the ways to improve the bioaccessibility of several lipophilic bioactive compounds
Aiming to obtain NPs with low size and polydispersity index (PDI) values, different processing parameters were evaluated for the production of ethylcellulose and zein NPs
For ethylcellulose NPs production, the polymer and antisolvent concentrations were considered the independent variables as presented in detail in the Section 3.5
Summary
Nanoencapsulation is presented as one of the ways to improve the bioaccessibility of several lipophilic bioactive compounds This improvement is a consequence of an increased solubility resulting from the encapsulation systems that are dispersed in aqueous solutions and due to its protection effect when submitted to harsh conditions (food processing or gastric phase during digestion) and the better micellarisation during the intestine phase [1]. Ethylcellulose is a semi-synthetic material derived from cellulose, which is biocompatible, non-toxic, water-insoluble, biodegradable and with wall-forming properties [9,10] It is a tasteless, white to light tan-coloured powder presenting a wide range of applications in the food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical fields [11,12]. An in vitro gastrointestinal model (static) was used to evaluate the bioaccessibility of β-carotene encapsulated within both nanosystems, after digestion
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