Recent Advances in Food-Packing, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications of Zein and Zein-Based Materials

Abstract

Zein is a biodegradable and biocompatible material extracted from renewable resources; it comprises almost 80% of the whole protein content in corn. This review highlights and describes some zein and zein-based materials, focusing on biomedical applications. It was demonstrated in this review that the biodegradation and biocompatibility of zein are key parameters for its uses in the food-packing, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the presence of hydrophilic-hydrophobic groups in zein chains is a very important aspect for obtaining material with different hydrophobicities by mixing with other moieties (polymeric or not), but also for obtaining derivatives with different properties. The physical and chemical characteristics and special structure (at the molecular, nano and micro scales) make zein molecules inherently superior to many other polymers from natural sources and synthetic ones. The film-forming property of zein and zein-based materials is important for several applications. The good electrospinnability of zein is important for producing zein and zein-based nanofibers for applications in tissue engineering and drug delivery. The use of zein’s hydrolysate peptides for reducing blood pressure is another important issue related to the application of derivatives of zein in the biomedical field. It is pointed out that the biodegradability and biocompatibility of zein and other inherent properties associated with zein’s structure allow a myriad of applications of such materials with great potential in the near future.

Poly(l-lysine) modified zein nanofibrous membranes as efficient scaffold for adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation of neural stem cells

“…28,29 However, application is limited by its hydrophobic property since over 50% of the amino acids composing zein are nonpolar amino acids such as leucine, proline, alanine, and phenylalanine. 30 Zein was used to blend with other materials such as polysaccharides to overcome its hydrophobic property.…”

Zein‐based composites in biomedical applications

“…The amino acid composition is a significant factor in determining the solubility of zein and accordingly, it is classified as α, β, γ, and δ zein . Zein as a biocompatible polymer has been proposed for applications in food packaging, textile fibers, coatings, but also in the biomedical and pharmaceutical fields . Paliwal and Palakurthi have reviewed applications of zein for drug delivery and tissue engineering.…”

Size-controlled fabrication of zein nano/microparticles by modified anti-solvent precipitation with/without sodium caseinate

“…1 Among these, zein and zein-based carriers have drawn much attention from experts in both food and pharmaceutical fields due to its molecular characterization, cytocompatibility, and biodegradability. [2][3][4][5] Zein belongs to the class of prolamin proteins and is the main storage protein of maize. Zein is primarily present as protein bodies in endosperm cells and can be extracted and separated with various technologies.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] The fabrication of zein-based nano/microparticles can be realized with various methods, including chemical crosslinking, 12 antisolvent precipitation, 13 supercritical anti-solvent technique, 14 spray drying, 15,16 emulsification-solvent evaporation, 17 and emulsification-precipitation-gelation technique. 18 These methods involve different mechanisms and vary in their simplicity and scale-up potential.…”