Gum arabic-stabilized emulsion systems: Underlying mechanisms for enhancing storage and digestion stability of curcumin

Chao Ai; Chengang Zhao; Jiawei Lin; Jingteng Deng; Yimei Zheng; Hui Teng; Lei Chen

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.139141

Gum arabic-stabilized emulsion systems: Underlying mechanisms for enhancing storage and digestion stability of curcumin

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Dec 23:139141. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.139141. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chao Ai¹, Chengang Zhao¹, Jiawei Lin², Jingteng Deng¹, Yimei Zheng³, Hui Teng⁴, Lei Chen⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science and Technology, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Processing and Safety, Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Marine Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Seafood, Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing of Aquatic Product of Guangdong Higher Education Institution, Zhanjiang 524088, China.
² School of Food Sciences and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China.
³ College of Food Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
⁴ College of Food Science and Technology, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Processing and Safety, Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Marine Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Seafood, Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing of Aquatic Product of Guangdong Higher Education Institution, Zhanjiang 524088, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ College of Food Science and Technology, Guangdong Ocean University, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Processing and Safety, Guangdong Province Engineering Laboratory for Marine Biological Products, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Seafood, Key Laboratory of Advanced Processing of Aquatic Product of Guangdong Higher Education Institution, Zhanjiang 524088, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39722384
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.139141

Abstract

Although the benefits of gum arabic (GA) in developing emulsion systems are well known, the mechanism underlying its stability-enhancing effect of GA in emulsion systems stabilized with curcumin remains unclear. This study used GA-stabilized emulsion system, containing 10 wt% medium-chain triglycerides and 0.1 % curcumin. Results demonstrated that when the GA concentration exceeded 0.5 wt%, the interface layer reached saturation, maintaining a consistent thickness of approximately 34.8 nm. The curcumin-containing emulsion demonstrated good stability during storage at room temperature and heating treatment, effectively protecting the curcumin. However, during in vitro intestinal digestion, the formation of salt and protein bridges caused the aggregation of oil droplets, resulting in an increase in the droplet size to 975.2 nm, while the curcumin content remained stable. Additionally, the in vitro release rate of encapsulated curcumin (44.0 %) was significantly higher than that of free curcumin (19.5 %). In conclusion, this study elucidated the stability-enhancing mechanism of GA-stabilized emulsions for curcumin and highlighted the potential of GA in developing emulsion systems for the encapsulation of these compounds.

Keywords: Emulsion; Gum arabic; Stability.