Strategies to Protect and Deliver Curcumin via Zein Nanocomposites for Food Applications.

Curcumin (Cur) considered as a golden nutraceutical, is emerging as one of bioactive compounds demonstrating the most promising biological activities, including antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer. It is also used for coloring and seasoning in foods. However, Cur applications are limited due to factors like low aqueous solubility, poor colloidal stability and bioavailability. Extensive efforts were made using pure zein (Ze) to develop nanoparticles (NPs) for encapsulation of Cur to overcome the aforementioned issues. Nevertheless, zein nanoparticles (ZeNPs) have limitations related to their instability to neutral pH and rapid degradation by gastric proteases. Thus, the combination between Ze and different biopolymers to produce zein nanocomposites (ZeNCs) for improving the stability of ZeNPs were scrutinized in this study. The mass ratio of Ze/polymer played a critical in the formation and stability of ZeNCs. Electrostatic attraction, hydrogen bonding and intermolecular interaction were responsible for ZeNCs formation. High encapsulation efficiency (EE), storage stability, solubility, bioaccessibility, intestinal permeability and antioxidant activity (AA) for Cur were achieved in ZeNCs compared to ZeNPs. ZeNCs did not show toxicity towards normal NCM460 and 293 cells, but potent anticancer activity against MCF-7, HepG2, Hela, and HCT 116 cells. ZeNCs displayed potential applications in different food matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]