Decoration of Fe3O4-vitamin C nanoparticles on alginate-chitosan nanocomplex: Characterization, safety, bioacessibility boost and Iron Nanofortification in A2 goat milk gels

Shweta Rathee; Ankur Ojha; Poonam Sagar; Ashutosh Upadhyay; Irfan A Rather; Shruti Shukla

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142711

Decoration of Fe₃O₄-vitamin C nanoparticles on alginate-chitosan nanocomplex: Characterization, safety, bioacessibility boost and Iron Nanofortification in A2 goat milk gels

Food Chem. 2025 Jan 1:470:142711. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142711. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Shweta Rathee¹, Ankur Ojha², Poonam Sagar³, Ashutosh Upadhyay⁴, Irfan A Rather⁵, Shruti Shukla⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Technology, National Institute of Food Science Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Kundli (NIFTEM-K), Sonipat 131028, Haryana, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Department of Food Science and Technology, National Institute of Food Science Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Kundli (NIFTEM-K), Sonipat 131028, Haryana, India. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute (NABI), S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali, Punjab 140208, India.
⁴ Department of Food Science and Technology, National Institute of Food Science Technology Entrepreneurship and Management, Kundli (NIFTEM-K), Sonipat 131028, Haryana, India.
⁵ Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ Department of Nanotechnology, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong 793022, Meghalaya, India. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39756086
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.142711

Abstract

In this study, an alginate-chitosan (AL-CS) nanocomplex decorated with vitamin C coated iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄-vit C NPs) was investigated as a novel nanoiron fortification agent. The Fe₃O₄-vit C NPs decorated on AL-CS nanocomplex underwent comprehensive characterization, including zeta potential, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and UV-vis spectroscopy. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis confirmed the decoration of Fe₃O₄-vit C NPs on AL-CS nanocomplex. The dynamic light scattering and thermogravimetric analysis showed enhanced thermal properties of decorated nanocomplex than the undecorated control. Biocompatibility testing on HepG2 cell lines revealed improved compatibility, while intestinal Caco2 cell lines showed approximately 51 % greater bioacessibility than controls. Further, 8 mg of Fe₃O₄-vit C NPs decorated AL-CS nanocomplex nanofortified 80 g of A2 goat milk gels (GMGs) which provided 0.072 mg/g of nanoiron without showing significant changes in texture and color compared to the control A2 GMGs. The PCA analysis helped to identify the impact of various factors for the preparation of decorated nanocomplex.

Keywords: A2 goat milk gels; Fortification; Iron oxide; Nanocomplex; PCA; Vitamin C.