Starch-based nanocarriers as cutting-edge natural cargos for nutraceutical delivery

Background: Nowadays, the rapidly emerging nanoscience offers an opportunity to design novel nano scale biopolymers as nano-delivery systems with desired characteristics for encapsulation of a broad range of bioactive components and nutraceuticals. Exploitation of bio-related polymers such as starch nanostructures is considered as a promising topic in the food and pharmaceutical industry owing to their potential in shielding valuable natural bioactive compounds and offering novel functionalities (i.e. surge of bioavailability and biostability) over the synthetic delivery systems. Scope and approach: This review describes in depth the novel trends in light of emerging platforms of starch nanostructures, together with defining starch granule architecture, plus targeting starch nanosization techniques. In addition, the current state of the art in the encapsulation of food bioactive components using various starch nanostructures have been summarized and tabulated. Key findings and conclusions: Different starch-based nanostructures including starch nanoparticles, starch nanocrystals, starch nanofibers, and even nanohelical amylose structures provide plenty of benefits by virtue of their unique features such as non-toxicity, availability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability for the protection and delivery of food bioactive ingredients.