Supercritical assisted process for the coencapsulation of curcumin and vitamin D3 into liposomes

• Grant number: 19/08345-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): October 07, 2019
• Effective date (End): October 06, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Samantha Cristina de Pinho
• Grantee: Matheus Andrade Chaves
• Supervisor: Ernesto Reverchon
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Università degli Studi di Salerno, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/10954-2 - Enrichment of cornstarch with curcumin and Vitamin D3 coencapsulated in lyophilized liposomes using wet agglomeration by high shear, BP.DR

Abstract

Nowadays, the growing appeal of leading a healthy lifestyle has made its way to consumers, which includes the intake of higher nutritional foods. However, one of the main drawbacks found by the food industry is related to the incorporation of hydrophobic bioactives in aqueous-based food formulations. In this context, liposomes have been increasingly investigated for food applications as potential carriers for hydrophobic bioactives. In this study, the coencapsulation of curcumin and vitamin D3 in liposomes is proposed. Curcumin presents itself as an alternative to artificial yellow dyes whose allergic reactions are heavily studied. On the other hand, vitamin D3 deficiency is a currently pandemic disease. Therefore, the coencapsulation of these two hydrophobic molecules in liposomes can be interesting as these lipid carriers present low toxicity and highly biocompatibility and biodegradability. As concerns the methods to produce liposomes, supercritical assisted techniques overcome several limitations found in conventional approaches as little reproducibility of the process, high solvent residues, and low encapsulation efficiencies. Besides, supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) can be used during the production of vesicles due to its high diffusion coefficient, and can also act as a clean substitute for organic solvents.In addition, it is important to mention that there is a paucity of information on the production of liposomes using supercritical assisted techniques for food purposes. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to produce lyophilized liposomes containing curcumin and vitamin D3. For this, it is intended to stablish the best lyoprotectant and the useful mass ratio of lyoprotectant:phospholipid to preventdamages in liposomal phospholipid membrane caused by the formation of ice crystals. Furthermore, it is proposed to establish the best conditions for liposome production using the supercritical assisted method developed by the Supercritical Fluids Research Group (University of Salerno, Italy), named SuperLip, as well as toevaluate the ability of dispersed and lyophilized systems to protect the bioactives.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

CHAVES, MATHEUS A.; FERREIRA, LETICIA S.; BALDINO, LUCIA; PINHO, SAMANTHA C.; REVERCHON, ERNESTO. Current Applications of Liposomes for the Delivery of Vitamins: A Systematic Review. NANOMATERIALS, v. 13, n. 9, p. 37-pg., 2023-05-05. (22/01236-7, 19/08345-3, 17/10954-2)

CHAVES, MATHEUS A.; BALDINO, LUCIA; PINHO, SAMANTHA C.; REVERCHON, ERNESTO. Supercritical CO2 assisted process for the production of mixed phospholipid nanoliposomes: Unloaded and vitamin D-3-loaded vesicles. Journal of Food Engineering, v. 316, MAR 2022. (19/08345-3, 17/10954-2)