Preparation and characterization of curcumin loaded caseinate/zein nanocomposite film using pH-driven method

By Lei Wang, J. Xue, Yue Zhang. Industrial crops and products (Print), 2019

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Abstract Functional edible films manufactured from crop by-products is promising for food industry. In this study, antioxidant films prepared from self-assembled curcumin-loaded sodium caseinate (NaCas)-zein composite nanoparticles was investigated. Nanocomposite film-forming dispersions were obtained by dissolving curcumin into polymer mixtures with NaCas/zein ratios of 100:0, 75:25 and 50:50 at pH 12.0, and then neutralized back to pH 7.0. The colloidal particles showed an average particle size and ζ-potential around 131–184 nm and -40 mv, respectively. Regardless of the NaCas/zein ratio in film-forming dispersions, the curcumin presence enabled NaCas/zein film to exhibit red-yellow color and antioxidant properties as evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging activity. Surface properties of films were further characterized by contact-angle measurement and scanning electron microscopy. An increasing proportion of zein could significantly improve the tensile strength (from 3.12 to 7.85 MPa) and constrain moisture transfer as indicated by decreased water vapor permeability from 0.87 to 3.56 × 10−10 g·Pa·m-1·s-1. However, the elongation resistance of NaCas-based films was compromised from 50.5% to 30.8%. When the zein proportion in the formulation reached 50:50, curcumin showed the best stability under elevated temperatures and long-time storage. The underlying mechanism of this alcohol-free process to prepare zein-based nanocomposite film is also proposed and discussed.

Subfields: Biomaterials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e7bf61c32105bdcfd4fc6d343989ca68812aa109