High-shear wet agglomeration process for enriching cornstarch with curcumin and vitamin D3 co-loaded lyophilized liposomes.

Curcumin and vitamin D3 are bioactive molecules of great importance for the food industry. However, their low stability in several processing conditions hampers their proper incorporation into powdered food formulations. This study proposes the enrichment of a common raw material (cornstarch) with curcumin and vitamin D3 by using high-shear wet agglomeration. The bioactives were initially encapsulated into liposome dispersions and then subjected to lyophilization. The resulting dried vesicles were later incorporated into cornstarch by wet agglomeration using maltodextrin as the binder solution. The phospholipid content and the amount of added liposomes were evaluated to characterize the enriched cornstarch samples. The lyophilized vesicles showed a high retention rate of 99 % for curcumin and vitamin D3, while the enriched cornstarch samples retained above 96 % (curcumin) and 98 % (vitamin D3) after 30 days of controlled storage. All in all, the presence of dried liposomes improved the flowability and delayed retrogradation phenomenon in agglomerated cornstarch. Therefore, this study introduced a novel and reliable method of incorporating hydrophobic and thermosensitive molecules into powdered food formulations by using readily available materials and a straightforward high-shear wet agglomeration process.

Current Applications of Liposomes for the Delivery of Vitamins: A Systematic Review.

Liposomes have been used for several decades for the encapsulation of drugs and bioactives in cosmetics and cosmeceuticals. On the other hand, the use of these phospholipid vesicles in food applications is more recent and is increasing significantly in the last ten years. Although in different stages of technological maturity-in the case of cosmetics, many products are on the market-processes to obtain liposomes suitable for the encapsulation and delivery of bioactives are highly expensive, especially those aiming at scaling up. Among the bioactives proposed for cosmetics and food applications, vitamins are the most frequently used. Despite the differences between the administration routes (oral for food and mainly dermal for cosmetics), some challenges are very similar (e.g., stability, bioactive load, average size, increase in drug bioaccessibility and bioavailability). In the present work, a systematic review of the technological advancements in the nanoencapsulation of vitamins using liposomes and related processes was performed; challenges and future perspectives were also discussed in order to underline the advantages of these drug-loaded biocompatible nanocarriers for cosmetics and food applications.

Curcumin-loaded proliposomes produced by the coating of micronized sucrose: Influence of the type of phospholipid on the physicochemical characteristics of powders and on the liposomes obtained by hydration.

The feasibility of producing proliposomes containing curcumin, as well as liposome dispersions, using different mixtures of purified and nonpurified soybean phospholipids was studied. Proliposomes were produced through coating of micronized sucrose and physicochemically characterized over 30 days of storage. In addition, the possible interactions among the components were investigated using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The proliposomes demonstrated a low propensity of water adsorption and low hygroscopicity. In addition, the curcumin content retained in the powders ranged from 67 to 92%. The liposomes were produced following proliposome hydration. Atomic force microscopy indicated the vesicles presented spherical shapes and photon correlation spectroscopy detected that their hydrodynamic diameters ranged from 207 to 222 nm. Finally, the curcumin-loaded liposomes preserved up to 63% of the bioactive compound but remained stable for only 15 days of storage.