Affiliation:
1. Department of Food Science and Pharmaceutics Zhejiang Ocean University Zhoushan China
2. Department of Food Science and Technology Wuhan Polytechnic University Wuhan China
3. Hubei Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science Wuhan Polytechnic University Wuhan China
4. Hubei Key Laboratory of Natural Products Research and Development, College of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences China Three Gorges University Yichang China
Abstract
AbstractBACKGROUNDPhytosterols (PS) have various beneficial effects on human health, especially the property of reducing blood cholesterol. However, the low solubility and bioaccessibility of PS have greatly limited their application in functional food ingredients.RESULTSTo improve the bioaccessibility and stability of PS, chitosan‐coated PS nanoparticles (CS‐PNP) were successfully prepared by self‐assembly. The properties of CS‐PNP, including size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE) and loading amount (LA) were characterised. The optimisation of CS concentration (0.4 mg mL−1) and pH (3.5) resulted in the formation of CS‐PNP with an EE of over 90% and a particle size of 187.7 nm. Due to the special properties of CS chitosan, the interaction between CS and soybean protein isolate (SPI)/lecithin (SL) led to the formation of a soluble complex. CS‐PNP exhibited good stability to temperature variations but was more sensitive to salt ions. During in vitro digestion, CS efficiently maintained the stability of nanoparticles against the hydrolysis of SPI by pepsin under acidic conditions. However, these nanoparticles tended to aggregate in a neutral intestinal environment. After 3 h of in vitro digestion, the bioaccessibility of PS increased from 18.2% of free PS to 63.5% of CS‐PNP.CONCLUSIONOverall, these results highlight the potential of chitosan‐coated nanoparticles as effective carriers for the oral administration of PS. This multilayer construction may serve as a promising for applications in food products as delivery vehicles for nutraceuticals. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry.
Funder
Hubei Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science
Subject
Nutrition and Dietetics,Agronomy and Crop Science,Food Science,Biotechnology