Abstract
In nature, self-assembly processes based on amphiphilic molecules play an integral part in the design of structures of higher order such as cells. Among them, amphiphilic glycoproteins or glycolipids take on a pivotal role due to their bioactivity. Here we show that sugars, in particular, fructose, are capable of directing the self-assembly of highly insoluble curcumin resulting in the formation of well-defined capsules based on non-covalent forces. Simply by mixing an aqueous solution of fructose and curcumin in an open vessel leads to the generation of capsules with sizes ranging between 100 and 150 nm independent of the initial concentrations used. Our results demonstrate that hydrogen bonding displayed by fructose can induce the self-assembly of hydrophobic molecules such as curcumin into well-ordered structures, and serving as a simple and virtually instantaneous way of making nanoparticles from curcumin in water with the potential for template polymerization and nanocarriers.
Highlights
In nature, self-assembly processes based on amphiphilic molecules play an integral part in the design of structures of higher order such as cells
This is similar to the behaviour observed when sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate was added to a solution of curcumin[17], the interaction of the surfactant with curcumin initially led to a decrease in the absorption at 425 nm, which is reversed when the surfactant surpasses its critical micelle concentration indicative of curcumin packed into the micelles
Only the initial drop is observed in our case and not the subsequent band increase upon aggregation, the strong dependency of the absorption on the fructose concentration indicates the interaction of curcumin with fructose
Summary
Self-assembly processes based on amphiphilic molecules play an integral part in the design of structures of higher order such as cells. We show that sugars, in particular, fructose, are capable of directing the self-assembly of highly insoluble curcumin resulting in the formation of well-defined capsules based on non-covalent forces. Inspired by the pivotal role these carbohydrates play in cell membranes, researchers have developed self-assembled amphiphilic glycoconjugates that can mimic the multivalency of natural carbohydrate–lectin interactions[4]. The formation of self-assembled structures has so far been based on a sugar surfactant where the carbohydrate is covalently bound to a hydrophobic tail[6,7,8,9,10] In this communication, we report the spontaneous formation of capsules by adding curcumin to solutions of fructose. Fundamental understanding of the molecular interactions at play was provided by theoretical studies, which reveal the thermodynamic driving force for curcumin dissolution must originate from capsule formation and fructose molecules may play a stabilizing role for structural integrity of the capsule
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