Betanin
and curcumin hold promise as natural colorants and antioxidants
for food purposes due to their anti-hypertensive, anti-inflammation,
and anti-tumor effects. However, the thermal stability and bioavailability
of betanin and curcumin still need improvement. Here, we fabricated
sugar beet pectin-bovine serum albumin nanoparticles (SBNPs) with
a mean particle size of 180 ± 5.2 nm through a genipin cross-linking
strategy to stabilize a type of Pickering water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W)
emulsion and co-encapsulated betanin and curcumin. First, the W1/O emulsion was homogenized with gelatin (the gelling agent)
in the water phase and polyglycerol polyricinoleate (a lipophilic
surfactant) in the oil phase. Later, W1/O was homogenized
with another water phase containing SBNPs. The microstructure of the
emulsion was regulated by the particle concentration (c) and W1/O volume fraction (Φ), especially the gel-like
high internal phase emulsions were formed at the Φ up to 70%.
In this case, betanin was encapsulated in the internal water phase
(encapsulation efficiency = 65.3%), whereas curcumin was in the medium-chain
triglyceride (encapsulation efficiency = 84.1%). Meanwhile, the shelf
stability of betanin and curcumin was improved. Furthermore, the stability
of bioactive compounds was potentiated by an emulsion gel in simulated
gastrointestinal digestion, resulting in higher bioaccessibility.
The aforementioned results suggest that SBNP-stabilized Pickering
W/O/W emulsions could be a potential alternative to co-encapsulate
betanin and curcumin with enhancement of shelf stability and bioaccessibility.
Pickering stabilizers with additional
antioxidant, photostabilizing,
and metal-chelating properties are suitable for structuring multifunctional
Pickering emulsion systems. Tannic acid (TA) is a potential material
which when adsorbed onto the interface may impart antioxidant, UV-light-shielding,
and chelating properties to Pickering stabilizers. Herein, we report
a type of TA polyelectrolyte nanoparticles (NPs) fabricated following
a complexation between TA and aminated sugar beet pectin (SBP-NH2). This study is geared toward investigating the performance
of TA/SBP-NH2 NPs in stabilizing Pickering emulsions and
protecting β-carotene from degradation. TA/SBP-NH2 NPs formed under optimum conditions had a mean diameter of 82 nm
with a sphere-like shape. Because of their favorable surface wettability
(91.2°), TA/SBP-NH2 NPs promoted formation of the
low-, medium-, and high-internal-phase Pickering emulsions (HIPEs)
in an oil volume fraction (φ)-dependent manner; the TA/SBP-NH2 NP-stabilized HIPE demonstrated viscoelastic properties increasing
with the increasing concentration (c) of nanoparticles.
Due to the excellent storage stability and UV light-absorbing capacity,
the photostability of β-carotene was significantly improved
by a TA/SBP-NH2 NP-stabilized HIPE (φ = 0.75; c = 3 mg/mL). Altogether, this study highlights that TA/SBP-NH2 NPs have potential applications in structuring Pickering
emulsions with improved protective effects on loaded lipophilic compounds.
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