Microfluidization based nano/sub-micron curcumin formulations for food and nutraceuticals: Physico-functional...

Curcumin is extensively used natural polyphenol with tremendous health benefits that are compromised due to its low water solubility, rapid degradation of its metabolites and low-bioavailability. It degrades during processing or in gastrointestinal tract and alkaline conditions leading to low bioavailability. These limitations have attracted many researchers' attention to improve its bioaccessibility and stability through several techniques by reducing its particle size. Microfluidization has progressed as a promising technique to achieve the micro and nano-sized curcumin. This review discusses microfluidics-based attempts to formulate submicron and nano-sized curcumin formulations for food and functional food applications. It highlights challenges associated with obtaining nano-sized curcumin, and subsequent improvement in the bioaccessibility/bioavailability through microfluidization. Further, the safety of such processed formulations as well as that of microfluidization and critical research gaps has also been discussed. This review shall provide a fresh perspective on effective utilization of microfluidized curcumin formulations for food & nutraceuticals applications.