The stability and bioavailability of curcumin loaded ?-lactalbumin nanocarriers formulated in functional dairy drink

There is a high demand for the development of functional foods formulated with health-promoting carotenoids. Curcumin (Cur) is one of the most promising carotenoids, but its application in functional foods especially drinks is limited due to its poor water solubility, low stability and bioavailability. Nanocarriers have shown great potential to solve these problems. In this work, Cur was loaded into nanocarriers made of self-assembly of partially hydrolyzing alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-lac). Cur functional dairy drinks were developed by adding Cur-loaded nanocarriers (nanocarriers (Cur)) into dairy drinks, and their colloidal stability and bioavailability were evaluated. The results showed that Cur exhibited intestine-responsive release behavior due to the unique nanospheres micellar structure that the hydrophobic cutting sites were buried in the core and not easily accessible to pepsin. In addition, the alpha-lac nanocarriers improved the stability of Cur against ultraviolet light. Furthermore, static and accelerated stability experiments showed that nanocarriers (Cur) dairy drinks possessed excellent colloidal stability. According to the sensory evaluation, the addition of nanocarriers (Cur) to dairy drinks significantly improved the perception score of stability and overall assessment. Moreover, nanocarriers (Cur) dairy drinks showed the highest Cur bioavailability. Therefore, the embedding via alpha-lac nanocarriers is feasible for applying Cur to functional dairy drinks and has broad prospects in the food industry.

Automated summary

Curcumin-loaded nanocarriers were successfully applied in functional dairy drinks, improving the stability and bioavailability of curcumin. The nanocarriers exhibited intestine-responsive release behavior and provided protection against UV light, resulting in excellent colloidal stability and enhanced perception score of stability and overall assessment.