Fabrication of Ligusticum chuanxiong polylactic acid microspheres: A promising way to enhance the hepatoprotective effect on bioactive ingredients.

Ligusticum chuanxiong extract-polylactic acid sustained-release microspheres (LCE-PLA) are fabricated in this study for enhancing both duration and hepatoprotective efficacy of the main bioactive ingredients. LCE-PLA in vitro release, cytotoxicity and in vivo hepatoprotective effect were discussed to evaluate its efficiency and functionality. Results demonstrated that the optimal drug-loading rate and encapsulation efficiency of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP, the main active ingredient) were 8.19%, 83.72%, respectively. The LCE-PLA in vitro release of TMP showed prolong 5-fold and in vitro cytotoxicity declined 25.00% compared with naked LCE. After 6 weeks of in vivo intervention in high fat diet mice, both liver aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase levels were higher in LCE-PLA group than LCE group. The above results indicated that TMP had a higher bioavailability of hepatoprotection when encapsulation of LCE-PLA was applied. The current study has provided a promising novel way to enhance the efficacy of short half-life ingredients.

Enhanced functional properties of biopolymer film incorporated with curcurmin-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles for food packaging.

Curcumin loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticle (SBA-15) was incorporated into chitosan (CS) film to improve the functional properties of pure CS film. Curcumin was loaded into SBA-15 (SBA-15-Cur) through a rotavapor method. The structural properties of SBA-15-Cur were characterised in detail by small-angle X-ray scattering, fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and N2 adsorption-desorption analyses. The CS/SBA-15-Cur bionanocomposite film was prepared by solvent casting. The mechanical properties of the bionanocomposite film were improved by the addition of the SBA-15-Cur nanofiller, as revealed by the FT-IR analysis of the biocomposite film. However, the water vapour permeability of the films was not significantly influenced by the filler. Release studies suggested that the CS/SBA-15-Cur bionanocomposite film exhibited pH-responsive and sustained release behaviour of curcumin. The CS/SBA-15-Cur film demonstrated efficient antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. These data indicated that the CS/SBA-15-Cur bionanocomposite film could be a promising active food packaging material.