Fabrication of self-assembled zein nanoparticles via microfluidic chip and ultrasonic treatment
type: CreativeWork
description: There are many health-promoting and disease-preventing bioactive compounds that are beneficial for human health, such as curcumin, lycopene, lutein, resveratrol, and apigenin. However, these bioactive compounds have some challenges to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries because of their poor solubility, poor bioavailability, and chemical instability. These limitations can be overcome by encapsulating bioactive compounds into the nanoscale delivery systems (emulsions, liposomes, nanoemulsions, microgels, and nanoparticles). Among these nanoscale delivery systems, nanoparticles have received increasing attention in the food industry for applications like food packaging, sensor, and encapsulation. Zein is a group of prolamines extracted from corn, which is generally recognized as safe in the food industry, and it can form self-assembled nanoparticles in water or a low concentration of ethanol via anti-solvent precipitation. The traditional method to form the zein nanoparticles is dropping the zein ethanol solution into a bulk water phase with mechanical shearing, which creates the heterogeneous shear environment and uncontrolled for nanoparticle formation. In this study, two methods were used to fabricate zein nanoparticles: microfluidic chip and ultrasonic treatment. Microfluidic chips are novel platforms that are used to control the ultra-small volume of fluids going through channels with the dimensions of tens of micrometers. Ultrasound technology has been used in the food industry for many years for bio-compounds extraction, viscosity modification. The overall objective of this study is to assess the impact of process parameters on the properties of the zein nanoparticles formed via a microfluidic fabrication and ultrasonic treatment and to assess the encapsulation and activities of bioactive compounds, such as nisin and curcumin, in the zein nanoparticles. First, zein-OSA modified starch nanoparticles were fabricated via a T-junction configuration of…
abstract: There are many health-promoting and disease-preventing bioactive compounds that are beneficial for human health, such as curcumin, lycopene, lutein, resveratrol, and apigenin. However, these bioactive compounds have some challenges to be used in the food and pharmaceutical industries because of their poor solubility, poor bioavailability, and chemical instability. These limitations can be overcome by encapsulating bioactive compounds into the nanoscale delivery systems (emulsions, liposomes, nanoemulsions, microgels, and nanoparticles). Among these nanoscale delivery systems, nanoparticles have received increasing attention in the food industry for applications like food packaging, sensor, and encapsulation. Zein is a group of prolamines extracted from corn, which is generally recognized as safe in the food industry, and it can form self-assembled nanoparticles in water or a low concentration of ethanol via anti-solvent precipitation. The traditional method to form the zein nanoparticles is dropping the zein ethanol solution into a bulk water phase with mechanical shearing, which creates the heterogeneous shear environment and uncontrolled for nanoparticle formation. In this study, two methods were used to fabricate zein nanoparticles: microfluidic chip and ultrasonic treatment. Microfluidic chips are novel platforms that are used to control the ultra-small volume of fluids going through channels with the dimensions of tens of micrometers. Ultrasound technology has been used in the food industry for many years for bio-compounds extraction, viscosity modification. The overall objective of this study is to assess the impact of process parameters on the properties of the zein nanoparticles formed via a microfluidic fabrication and ultrasonic treatment and to assess the encapsulation and activities of bioactive compounds, such as nisin and curcumin, in the zein nanoparticles. First, zein-OSA modified starch nanoparticles were fabricated via a T-junction configuration of…
author: Liu, Xuanbo
language: en
keywords: Zein nanoparticle complexes, the microfluidic chip, ultrasonic treatment
date published: 2022-01-12T21:45:38Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:52Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113020