PREPARATION OF NANOCAPSULES OF CURCUMIN USING NATIVE CASEIN MICELLES AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATION
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Date
2022
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Publisher
ICAR-NDRI, KARNAL
Abstract
Food enrichment through functionalizing it by using milk proteins especially casein (CN)
is a way to healthier world as demand for low calorie functional food is increasing.
Nanoencapsulation has been a trending technology over others, in the past decade, due to
advantages that it offers like increasing effectiveness and efficiency of delivery as well as
maintaining product texture and consistency. This study focused on the fabrication of
stable nanocapsules of curcumin in native casein micelles i.e. micellar casein concentrate
(MCC) and skim milk casein micelles. This way all the native physicochemical and
functional properties of casein micelles could be preserves and also the curcumin could be
prevented from degradation through light, processing conditions. MCC and buffalo skim
milk were subjected to pH variation to nanoencapsulateethanol solublizedcurcumin and
then spray dried. Curcumin was dissolved in ethanol (10mg/ ml) and added dropwise with
stirring at a rate of 80 mg/ 100 ml and 100 mg/ 100 ml in nanocapsules from MCC and
buffalo skim milk respectively. Encapsulation efficiency (EE) was good for both wet and
dry forms i.e. 97.00 ± 0.24% and 96.74 ± 0.39 % of MCC respectively. The EE of wet as
well as dried sample of buffalo skim milk nanoencapsulated samples were excellent i.e.
98.81 ± 0.11 % & 98.34 ± 0.10 % respectively.There was no significant variation in EE
and unencapsulatedcurcumin contents on variation under normal conditions of temperature
(30˚C to boiling temperature), sucrose concentration (2 to 10 %) and ionic strength (0.1 to
1.0 M) for MCC as well as skim milk nanoencapsulated solution and spray dried
formulation. The particle size, zeta potential and PDI values at these conditions indicated
stability of solutions. The only drawback was dispersability of solutions which was <2 %
in case of MCC based nanocapsules. Hence, further studies were done on buffalo skim
milk nanocapsules of curcumin.During gastric digestion > 90 % of encapsulated curcumin
was retained (5.23 ± 1.28 % & 6.12 ± 0.24 % in wet and dried samples). In the intestinal
phase as the time progressed the sample clarified indicating total breakdown of casein
protein chain to peptides of smaller length (98.43 ± 1.38 & 98.12 ± 1.49 % in wet and
dried samples). It can be clearly seen that most of the characteristic peaks of curcumin
disappeared in the secondary derivative spectra after its NE in skim milk which is due to
reduced stretching and bending of curcumin bonds due to nanoencapsulation. Blood urea
nitrogen levels increased in nanoencapsulated powder treated groups as compared to
paracetamol only treated group whereas creatinine, glutamate pyruvatetransaminase and
alkaline phosphatase levels decreased in blood serum of mice treated with
nanoencapsulated powder after/ before paracetamol treatment.One serving (4 g powder
formulation in 200 ml milk) having curcumin concentration (30-40 mg) equivalent to
house hold preparation of HaldiDoodh [prepared using 500 mg haldi (equivalent to 15 mg
curcumin) in 200 ml milk] and with 20% more milk proteins together with enhancement
of SNF level by 18%.The kesar flavoured milk and mango lassi had no significant
variation in sensory characteristics from market counterparts of the same products.
Hence, curcumin was delivered successfully with high bioactivity. The nanocapsules were
formed in form of a spray dried powder that is readily dispersible in dairy beverages.