Astaxanthin is a natural liposoluble ketocarotenoid with various biological activities. Hydrophobic astaxanthin with C2h symmetry can self-assembly form H-type aggregates and J-type aggregates in hydrated polar solvents. However, astaxanthin and its aggregates are limited by its water insolubility and chemical instability. Here, the biological macromolecules bovine serum albumin (BSA) and chitosan were chosen as protein-polysaccharides based delivery systems for astaxanthin aggregates by molecular self-assembly method. The precise prepared H-ABC-NPs and J-ABC-NPs suspensions were both near spheres with hydrodynamic size around 281 ± 9 nm and 368 ± 5 nm and zeta potentials around +26 mV and +30 mV, respectively. Two types of astaxanthin aggregates were distinguished, water-dispersible, and stable in nanocarriers through UV-vis spectra observation. The encapsulation efficiency of the astaxanthin in ABC-NPs was above 90 %. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) analyses indicated that the dominant driving forces of ABC-NPs formation mainly included electrostatic, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonding. These results offer an elegant opportunity for the protein-polysaccharides delivery systems, and provide an important perspective for applying novel water-dispersed astaxanthin aggregates products in nutrition and medicine industry.
Keywords: Astaxanthin; Dispersibility; Self-assembly.
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