Incorporation of Tannic Acid in Food-Grade Guar Gum Fibrous Mats by Electrospinning Technique.

Weiqiao Yang,Xihong Li,Min Zhang,Jianan Jiang,Sherri Pontious,Linshu Liu,Ana Sousa,Qiang Zhao

doi:10.3390/polym11010141

Abstract

The use of polysaccharides to produce functional micro- or nanoscale fibrous mats has attracted growing interest for their food-grade applications. In this study, the characterization and electro-spinnability of guar gum (GG) solutions loaded with tannic acid (TA) was demonstrated. Food-grade antioxidant materials were successfully produced by electrospinning while incorporating different loads of TA into GG fibers. Bead-free GG-TA fibers could be fabricated from GG solution (2 wt %) with 10 wt % TA. Increasing the amount of TA led to fibers with defects and larger diameter sizes. Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy and X-ray Diffraction of neat GG and TA loaded GG fibrous mats suggested that inclusion of TA interrupted the hydrogen bonding and that a higher density of the ordered junction zones formed with the increased TA. The high TA incorporation efficiency and retained antioxidant activity of the fibrous mats afford a potential application in active edible film or drug delivery system.

Highlights

Due to its natural nontoxic, biodegradable, and cost-effective properties, guar gum (GG) has been considered a substitute for starch in food industry because this dietary polysaccharide is admittedly resistant to human digestion and absorption, with cholesterol and glucose lowering effects [15,16]
It occupies superior position in the food industry as a functional ingredient owing to its dietary fiber characteristic [19,20,21], as well as in the pharmaceutical field for drug delivery systems [22,23], which makes it an ideal carrier candidate to encapsulate a variety of bioactive food ingredients
We examined the feasibility of incorporation of tannic acid (TA) to develop electrospun GG fibrous mats with antioxidant activity for the first time

Summary

Introduction

The interrelationship between structure and physicochemical characteristics for delivery and encapsulation materials requires the design to employ three key characteristics: (1) matrices with high porous structure and huge surface area–volume ratio to permit medium, relatively free exchange between cellular constructs, due to low permeability resistance [1,2]; (2) morphology-controlled process and toxic reagent-free methods, due to potential human and environmental safety concerns; and (3)greater incorporation of instructive molecules such as food additives or drugs to offer significant opportunities for enhancing the functionality [3].Among various methods, the electrospinning technique has attracted growing interest to produce such materials and proven to be a relatively efficient and versatile nanotechnology to develop continuous fibers with diameters down to nano- to micrometer dimensions [4,5,6], which afford inherently high surface area–volume ratios and have excellent mass transfer properties [7]. Oral administration using GG as the delivery system for drugs show that GG could release active agent in the colon and delay their release in target site under conditions mimicking mouth to gastrointestinal tract [18] It occupies superior position in the food industry as a functional ingredient owing to its dietary fiber characteristic [19,20,21], as well as in the pharmaceutical field for drug delivery systems [22,23], which makes it an ideal carrier candidate to encapsulate a variety of bioactive food ingredients. Purification and filtration processes are used to improve the morphology [25], it is still hard to develop the continuous uniform nanostructure of GG fiber, much less use it to deliver functional additives

Methods

Results

Conclusion