Biopolymer based nano-delivery systems for enhancing bioavailability of nutraceuticals

Recently, there has been an increasing interest in the development of efficient food-grade oral nano-delivery systems for encapsulation, protection and target delivery of nutraceuticals to enhance their bioavailability, further to prevent disease and promote human health and well-being. Food proteins represent promising candidates for efficient nutraceutical nanocarriers due to their exceptional characteristics, namely biodegradability, nonantigenicity, high nutritional value, abundant renewable sources and extraordinary binding capacity to various nutraceuticals. In addition, their biocompatibility, biodegradability, low toxicity, low cost, and non-starch polysaccharides possess many favourable characteristics such as stability in the harsh gastric environment, resistance to digestive enzymes, and mucoadhesiveness to intestinal mucosal surface. This review describes the design and formation of nanoscaled delivery systems for nutraceuticals using food-grade proteins (including peptides), polysaccharides and their associative complexes. The toxicity and cellular uptake fate of the nanostructures, as well as their effects on the intestinal absorption of the encapsulated nutraceuticals were also discussed.