Pickering emulsion stabilized by sugarcane leaf polyphenols-zein covalent nanoparticles for curcumin delivery: In-vitro and inhibition of oxidative hemolytic activity evaluation

Abstract

Pickering emulsion have been widely used to encapsulate bioactives with the aim of preventing degradation, improving bioavailability and achieving the effect of slow release. Curcumin (Cur), as a bioactive compound, was famous as its excellent beneficial human health functions. However, the low solubility and susceptibility to environmental influences limit the application of Cur. In our previous study, the covalent nanoparticles (sugarcane leaf polyphenols-zein, SGLpZ) with excellent antioxidant capacity were successfully fabricated. In addition, the pickering emulsion stabilized using SGLpZ with significance storage stability and antioxidant properties, which inspired us for Cur delivery application. Therefore, in this study, SZP (pickering emulsion stabilized by SGLpZ) were prepared and were firstly used to delivery Cur evaluation. Results exhibited that the mechanism of excellent stabilization of SZP may be due to the wide range of O/W phase interfaces with SGLpZ, which could be further used as a delivery system for Cur. An in-vitro simulated digestion suggested that SZP provided better protection to Cur under three different conditions (different Na+ concentration, temperatures and UV exposure times), compared to ZZP (pickering emulsion stabilized by zein nanoparticles alone). SZP was able to achieve a slow release of Cur as well as the high bioaccessibility of Cur during the in-vitro simulated digestion. Finally, Cur, Cur-ZZP and Cur-SZP inhibited respectively by 33.20±1.00%, 53.26±0.94% and 71.59±0.14% (p＜0.05) at the Cur concentration of 20 μg/mL in the in-vitro inhibition of AAPH-induced erythrocyte hemolysis assay. The study indicated that the pickering emulsion stabilized by SGLpZ was a reliable Cur delivery system and provided a novel idea of food material application for bioacitive substances delivery.