Genipin-enriched chitosan-Zein nanoparticles for improved curcumin encapsulation

Lingling Sha, Husnain Raza, Chengsheng Jia, Imran Mahmood Khan*, Huqing Yang, Gang Chen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Polysaccharide-protein nanocomplexes are considered one of the desired systems to encapsulate bioactive compounds. The study prepared chitosan (CS)/genipin (GP)/zein nanoparticles with chemical cross-linkage for encapsulating and releasing curcumin. Fourier transform infrared spectra demonstrated that cross-linkage between molecules was attributed to electrostatic interactions and the formation of amido bonds and hydrogen bonding. Transmission electron microscopy showed that all prepared nanoparticles showed a spherical morphology. Particularly, cinnamaldehyde screening –NH2 groups in CS significantly reduced the encapsulation efficiency of nanoparticles, demonstrating the significant role of the –NH2 group in CS-coated zein nanoparticles. Additionally, the encapsulation efficiency was largely increased to 82.3 % at the ratio of CS/GP/zein (w/w, 20:1:100), compared with 38.4 % using zein as a single encapsulation for curcumin. In vitro digestion, the addition of GP and CS decreased the release of curcumin from 84.8 % to 57.1 % after the initial digestion of 2 h. The GP/CS/zein particles retained 12 % of curcumin after 6- h of digestion, indicating the improvements in encapsulation efficiency and release properties.

Original languageEnglish
Article number138555
JournalInternational Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Volume288
ISSN0141-8130
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2025

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study was financially supported by the development fund of Zhejiang A & F University ( 2020FR082 ).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.

Keywords

  • Chitosan
  • Encapsulation
  • Genipin
  • Nanoparticles
  • Zein

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