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Background: Certain food bioactives and nutraceuticals need to be preserved from environmental factors such as pH, light, oxygen, temperature, and enzymatic degradation because they are chemically or physically instable. Moreover, these compounds may be degraded in gastrointestinal system and are not absorbed in body. Being a novel technique, encapsulation suggested effective solution to the limitations of delivering intact bioactive ingredients to the target sites. Chitosan has been extensively valued as a delivery system for bioactive ingredients. Scope and approach: In this review article, we discuss the potential applications of chitosan-based carriers as encapsulating agent in food industry. Chitosan alone or modified chitosan particles have been extensively used as a coating on liposome and alginate beads, as well as a delivery system for bioactive ingredients such as essential oils, flavor, vitamins, antioxidants, and probiotics. Key findings and conclusions: Chitosan is a cationic natural polysaccharide which has emerged as a suitable carrier in delivering nutraceuticals as it is non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible. Chitosan encapsulation can protect bioactive ingredients from extreme conditions such as pH and temperature. Chitosan capsules have proved to be suitable carriers for essential oils, flavors, vitamins, antioxidants, and probiotics.

A major obstacle in the utilization of phenolic antioxidant compounds is their sensitivity and as a result stability issue. The current study aimed to encapsulate polyphenolic compounds, extracted from Rosemary, in liposomes prepared by the Mozafari method without the utilization of toxic solvents or detergents. The extract was prepared and converted into a powder by freeze-drying. The process conditions were optimized using response surface analysis, and the optimal parameters were as follows: phosphatidylcholine (PC), 2.5% (25 mg/mL); extract, 0.7% (7 mg/mL); process temperature, 70 °C and process time, 60 min. The entrapment efficiency in optimal sample was 54.59%. Also, optimal glycerosomes formulation were finally physicochemical characterized (permeability, zeta potential, and size distribution). The mean size of empty and containing rosemary extract glycerosome were 265.4 nm and 583.5 nm, respectively, and the Z-potential of optimal glycerosome was -65.1 mV. Total phenolic content was obtained 151.38 mg gallic acid/g extract, in optimal liposomal formulation, which was measured by Folin-Ciocalteu's phenol reagent. Also, the antioxidant activity of rosemary extract by DPPH for the free and optimal liposomal formulation was determined to be 84.57% and 92.5% respectively. It can be concluded that the liposomal rosemary extract formulation prepared in this study, employing a safe, scalable, and green technology, has great promise in food and pharmaceutical applications., Antioxidant, Liposome, Mozafari method, Polyphenols, Rosemary extract.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in novel food formulations and packaging materials using controlled release systems in order to enhance the functional performance of food bioactive ingredients and to prolong the shelf-life of food products. Correspondingly, numerous types of matrices (polymers, biopolymers, synthetic materials) could be implemented as carriers based on their compatibility with the bioactive ingredients and the type of releasing medium. A plethora of applications of controlled release can be identified in the pharmaceutical, agriculture, cosmetics, and particularly the food industries. Moreover, several physical and chemical stimuli are applied to regulate the release behavior of a bioactive molecule in the desired medium, which is under development. This review highlights the strategies applied to regulate the release rate of biopolymeric networks mainly including mixing of biopolymers, physical and chemical crosslinkers along with encapsulation systems, furthermore, the future prospects of release concept are discussed.

Background and Objectives: This survey was conducted in order to assess the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children of the war-wounded veterans, and to compare it with the general population of Shiraz.Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional survey on a random sample of children and adolescents of 223 veteran's (25%-70%) families between 12-20 years old. The control group consisted of students of 12-20 years of age. Diagnosis was made using semi-structured clinical interviews on the basis of DSM-IV, through K-SADS-PL.Results: Out of 223 veteran's families interviewed, 123 families had at least one child with one psychiatric disorder. Those children, 52 boys (15 %) and 71 girls (20%), suffered from at least one of the psychiatric disorders. The prevalence of depressive disorders such as dysthymia was 2.3%, major depressive disorder 8.4%, and minor depression 5.8%. The prevalence of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder was (10.1%), separation anxiety disorder (1.4%) obsessive compulsive disorder (4%), panic disorder (3.2%), post traumatic stress disorder (3.2%), social phobia (4.3%) specific phobia (2%) and agoraphobia was (1.4%). Conclusio: Although the prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders did not significantly differ from that of control group, but more studies, and more consultative, preventive and therapeutic actions seem to be necessary for children of veterans, due to a higher prevalence of some of anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder and some depression symptoms.Keywords: Prevalence; Anxiety Disorders; Depressive Disorders; Child; Shiraz , Iran.

Nanomaterials and nanosystems for biomedical applications , Nanomaterials and nanosystems for biomedical applications , کتابخانه دیجیتال جندی شاپور اهواز

The oral route is considered the most patient-convenient means of drug administration. In recent years there has been a tendency to employ smart carrier systems that enable controlled or timed release of a bioactive material, thereby providing a better dosing pattern and minimizing side effects. Nano-encapsulation systems (nanocarriers) offer important advantages over conventional drug delivery techniques. Nanocarriers can protect the drug from chemical/enzymatic degradation and enhance bioavailability. Prebiotics are ideal ingredients for the nano-encapsulation and oral drug delivery due to their natural ability to protect the encapsulated compound in the upper gasterointestinal (GI) tract. Here the potential of prebiotics for oral delivery of drugs and other bioactives is reviewed.

Submicron lipid vesicles (nanoliposomes) are being used as carriers of bioactive compounds. In addition, complexes of nanoliposomes and nucleic acids (nanolipoplexes) are promising tools for the treatment of cancer, and viral and genetic disorders. Toxicity of some of these formulations, however, still remains a concern in their clinical utilisation. To address this problem, anionic liposomes were prepared by two different techniques, the conventional thin-film method, and the heating method (HM), in which no volatile organic solvent or detergent is used. An anionic nanolipoplex was constructed by incorporating plasmid DNA (pcDNA3.1/His B/lacZ) into the HM-nanoliposomes by the mediation of calcium. The toxicity of the nanoliposomes, with and without plasmid and Ca2+, was assessed using a human bronchial epithelial cell line (16HBE14o-) in the presence of serum. Cytotoxicity evaluations performed by two different assays (i.e. NRU and MTT) indicated that HM-nanoliposomes were completely non-toxic in the cell-line tested, whereas conventional liposomes revealed significant levels of toxicity. This may be due to the presence of trace amounts of chloroform and/or methanol applied during their preparation. Similar results were obtained for different sizes of lipid vesicles (prepared by 100 nm and 400 nm pore-size filters). In addition, it was observed that incorporation of DNA (15 microg/ 285 microg lipid) and Ca2+ (50 mM) to the nanoliposomes did not have any effect on their cytotoxicities. These findings indicate that the HM-liposomes have great potential as non-toxic delivery vehicles in human gene therapy and drug delivery applications while liposomes made using organic solvents should be used with caution.