Photo-stability of lutein in surfactant-free lutein-zein composite colloidal particles

Frankjen Ynske de Boer; Arnout Imhof; Krassimir Petkov Velikov

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2019.100071

Photo-stability of lutein in surfactant-free lutein-zein composite colloidal particles

Food Chem X. 2019 Nov 27:5:100071. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2019.100071. eCollection 2020 Mar 30.

Authors

Frankjen Ynske de Boer¹, Arnout Imhof¹, Krassimir Petkov Velikov^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Soft Condensed Matter & Biophysics, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 1, 3584 CC Utrecht, the Netherlands.
² Unilever R&D Vlaardingen, Olivier Van Noortlaan 120, 3133 AT Vlaardingen, the Netherlands.
³ Institute of Physics, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Abstract

The ability of nanoparticles from the plant protein zein to protect lutein from light degradation was studied under various conditions. Lutein-zein nanoparticles were synthesized, after zein purification, by anti-solvent precipitation. Particle sizes, ranging from 25 to 75 nm, measured by dynamic light scattering, were tuned by varying zein concentrations in the solvent phase (before anti-solvent precipitation), which was linked to the encapsulation efficiency. However, changes in particle sizes did not result in significant changes in photo-stability. Zein-lutein nanoparticles showed increased photo-stability of lutein when compared to lutein dispersions in water. To further promote the lutein stability, ascorbic acid was used as an antioxidant in the aqueous dispersion. The addition of ascorbic acid to lutein-zein particles resulted in dispersions with similar properties. However, the photo-stability of lutein in dispersions stabilized with ascorbic acid improved significantly compared to samples without ascorbic acid or to pure lutein dispersions (about 25% increased relative stability).

Keywords: Acetic acid (PubChem CID: 176); Ascorbic acid; Ascorbic acid (PubChem CID: 54670067); Chloroform (PubChem CID: 6212); Encapsulation; Ethanol (PubChem CID 702); Lutein; Lutein (PubChem CID: 5281243); Photo-stability; Sodium acetate (PubChem CID: 517045); Water (PubChem CID: 962); Zein.