ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1641620
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancing Nutrition through Natural Macromolecular Delivery Systems: Encapsulation and Controlled Release of Bioactive CompoundsView all articles
Fabrication and characterization of zein/carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles for co-encapsulation of curcumin and resveratrol
Provisionally accepted
- 1Collaborative Innovation Center for Molecular Imaging of Precision Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, taiyuan, China
- 2College of Life Science and Technology, Inner Mongolia Normal University,, Inner Mongolia, China
- 3Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Utilization in Mongolian Plateau for College and University of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot, China
- 4Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR, China
- 5Key Laboratory of Systems Bioengineering (Ministry of Education), Tianjin University, Taiyuan, China
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Addressing challenges such as poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and instability that limit the application of curcumin and resveratrol in functional foods, this study developed a novel co-delivery system based on zein and carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS). The curcumin/resveratrol-zein-CMCS nanocomplexes were successfully fabricated via antisolvent precipitation methods. Structural characterization revealed that hydrophobic interactions, electrostatic attraction, and hydrogen bonding maintained the NPs' integrity. The optimized CRZC NPs (zein: CMCS mass ratio = 2:1) exhibited the smallest size (201.6 nm), high encapsulation efficiency (72.90% for curcumin; 78.23% for resveratrol), and superior radical scavenging capacity. The CMCS coating improved the storage and digestion stability of both bioactives. These results demonstrate CRZC NPs could be used as an efficient delivery system for co-delivery of synergistic nutraceuticals in the development of functional foods.
Keywords: Co-delivery system, Curcumin, resveratrol, zein/carboxymethyl chitosan nanoparticles, stability
Received: 05 Jun 2025; Accepted: 21 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Yin, Zhang and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pan Wang, Collaborative Innovation Center for Molecular Imaging of Precision Medicine, Shanxi Medical University, taiyuan, China
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