A family of chitosan-peptide conjugates provides broad HLB values, enhancing emulsion's stability, antioxidant and drug release capacity

Strong hydrophilicity of polysaccharide and physicochemical instability of peptides limit application of polysaccharide-peptide mixtures in food industry. In this study, a natural resource platform of polysaccharide-peptide conjugates was constructed through Maillard reaction from chitosan and casein hydrophobic peptide. By choosing the molecular weight and deacetylation degree of chitosan and other reaction parameters, the conjugated chitosan-peptides possess extensive HLB values from 6 to 14 were obtained with grafting degree of 3.10%-15.08%. The conjugates have gained dramatically improved emulsifying ability, and endowed the emulsion higher antioxidant capacity than the peptide, chitosan and the mixture of peptide-chitosan has. Emulsions prepared with all conjugates exhibited long-term stability and strengthened tolerance towards temperature and electrolyte stimuli. This stable emulsion system also provided an effective encapsulation, protection and controlled release of curcumin, which may provide a method for transfer polysaccharides to stable emulsifiers with broader HLB values and application.

Automated summary

In this study, a natural resource platform of polysaccharide-peptide conjugates was constructed through Maillard reaction, leading to conjugates with improved emulsifying ability and higher antioxidant capacity. These conjugates provided stable emulsion systems with effective encapsulation, protection, and controlled release of curcumin.