Simple Strategy Preparing Cyclodextrin Carboxylate as a Highly Effective Carrier for Bioactive Compounds.

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Materials Science
• Biochemistry

Background:

• Phytochemicals often have poor water dispersibility and stability, limiting their use in aqueous commercial products.
• Beta-cyclodextrin (β-CD) is a water-dispersible molecule with a hydrophobic core capable of encapsulating non-polar substances.
• Chemical modification can enhance the functional properties of β-CD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a simple and effective method for modifying β-CD.
• To evaluate the encapsulation properties and water solubility of the modified β-CD.
• To assess the potential of modified β-CD for incorporating bioactive compounds into functional foods.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of succinic acid-modified β-CD (SACD) via a dry-heating esterification process.
• Evaluation of SACD's encapsulation efficiency for methyl orange and curcumin.
• Measurement of SACD's water solubility.

Main Results:

• SACD demonstrated enhanced encapsulation of guest molecules, including methyl orange (up to 1.41-fold increase compared to β-CD) and curcumin (up to 10 mg/g encapsulation efficiency).
• SACD exhibited significantly higher water solubility (up to 469.30 g per 100 g H₂O) compared to unmodified β-CD.
• The dry-heating process was effective in creating a modified cyclodextrin with improved properties.

Conclusions:

• Succinic acid modification via dry-heating is a simple and effective strategy to enhance β-CD's encapsulation and solubility.
• The resulting SACD shows great potential for incorporating poorly soluble bioactive compounds into aqueous-based functional foods.
• The low cytotoxicity of SACD further supports its application in food matrices.