A study on ß-lactoglobulin-triligand-pectin complex particle: Formation, characterization and protection

There appear to be interesting market opportunities for functional foods offering multiple health benefits. This provides motivation to develop the carriers that can simultaneously encapsulate a plurality of bioactive components. Beta-lactoglobulin (ss-LG) contains an internal cavity and multiple external portions as potential sites for the binding of a wide range of bioactive components. Formation of protein-polysaccharide complex may improve functional property of individual polymers. In this study, retinol, folic acid and resveratrol were used as the models of the ligands with different solubility, to investigate the formation of ss-LG-triligand-pectin complex particle. The complex particle provided a better protective effect on retinol than did ss-LG-retinol complex and eliminated negative effect of the protein on resveratrol. These results obtained here should be useful for the design of protein-based carriers for simultaneous encapsulation of several bioactive components with different solubility.