ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Food Chemistry
This article is part of the Research TopicChemistries at Nanoscale Applied to Agro-Food SciencesView all articles
"Hot" Alkaline Hydrolysis of UiO-66 to Enhance Quercetin Loading, In Vitro Release, Antioxidant and Anti-inflammatory Properties
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
- 2Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
- 3Equipment management and maintenance center, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Taiyuan, China
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The FDA classifies Quercetin (QU) as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substance and exhibits striking antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. However, its extremely low solubility in water limits its application in the fields of food and nutrition. Nanomaterials such as UiO-66 (University of Oslo 66) have been widely used in the field of nutrient delivery. In this study, terephthalic acid ligands were stripped from small-sized UiO-66 via a thermal alkaline hydrolysis method, resulting in a new drug-loaded material, UiO-66-BH-100 (UiO-66 blended and heated, with a size of 100 nm). The obtained UiO-66-BH-100 showed significantly increased porosity and good thermal stability. Rich in hydroxyl groups (1.7×10¹⁹ m⁻²), UiO-66-BH-100 could dramatically enhance the adsorption capacity for QU (302.60 mg/g vs. 135.57 mg/g). Results of adsorption experiments indicate that the adsorption of QU by UiO-66-BH-100 tends to follow a monolayer adsorption behavior, suggesting electron pair sharing or transfer may occur during the adsorption process. The QU-loaded drug carrier UiO-66-BH-100@QU has good biocompatibility and could significantly improve the in vitro release behavior of QU. Notably, the capacity of UiO-66-BH-100@QU to scavenge DPPH and ABTS, as well as its ability to inhibit NO secretion, was almost comparable to that of QU, demonstrating promising antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. This study provides a simple and effective new approach for delivering natural active ingredients with excellent bioavailability in the field of functional foods.
Keywords: thermal alkaline hydrolysis, small size, Adsorption capacity, Quercetin, In vitrorelease
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 29 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chang, Wang, Liu, Jia, Wang, Song, Ji and Li. 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:
Ruimiao Chang, changruimiao@sxmu.edu.cn
Qingqing Li, liqingqing@sxbqeh.com.cn
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