Structural and mechanistic insights into starch microgel/anthocyanin complex assembly and controlled release...

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Food Science
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Anthocyanins are valuable natural pigments with limited stability and bioavailability.
• Developing effective encapsulation methods is crucial for preserving anthocyanin properties.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a self-assembly method for fabricating multilayered starch-based microgels.
• To investigate the encapsulation efficiency and release kinetics of anthocyanins using these microgels.
• To evaluate the structural properties and stability of the multilayered microgels.

Main Methods:

• Starch microgels were fabricated using alcohol-heating treatment and ionization, followed by cross-linking with sodium trimetaphosphate.
• Multilayered starch-microgel/anthocyanin complexes (Lay-1, Lay-2, Lay-3) were formed through self-assembly.
• Encapsulation efficiency, zeta potential, and release profiles were analyzed under optimized conditions.

Main Results:

• Optimized conditions (0.25 mg/mL anthocyanin, 1.5 mg/mL starch, 3h, 40°C) yielded 50.1% encapsulation efficiency for Lay-1 microgels.
• Increasing layers resulted in more compact microgel structures and altered zeta potential.
• Lay-1 showed slow anthocyanin release, while Lay-2 and Lay-3 exhibited superior encapsulation stability.

Conclusions:

• The self-assembly method effectively produced stable multilayered starch microgels for anthocyanin encapsulation.
• The developed microgels offer a promising strategy for enhancing anthocyanin stability and controlled release.
• This research provides insights into starch-based encapsulation materials for bioactive compounds.