Background Nowadays, the rapidly emerging nanoscience offers an opportunity to design novel nano scale biopolymers as nano-delivery systems with desired characteristics for encapsulation of a broad range of bioactive components and nutraceuticals. Exploitation of bio-related polymers such as starch nanostructures is considered as a promising topic in the food and pharmaceutical industry owing to their potential in shielding valuable natural bioactive compounds and offering novel functionalities (i.e. surge of bioavailability and biostability) over the synthetic delivery systems. Scope and approach This review describes in depth the novel trends in light of emerging platforms of starch nanostructures, together with defining starch granule architecture, plus targeting starch nanosization techniques. In addition, the current state of the art in the encapsulation of food bioactive components using various starch nanostructures have been summarized and tabulated. Key findings and conclusions Different starch-based nanostructures including starch nanoparticles, starch nanocrystals, starch nanofibers, and even nanohelical amylose structures provide plenty of benefits by virtue of their unique features such as non-toxicity, availability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability for the protection and delivery of food bioactive ingredients.

Starch-based nanocarriers as cutting-edge natural cargos for nutraceutical delivery

Consumption of functional foods suggests a strategy to reduce the incidence of chronic health disorders. This message has resonated with consumers and driven market growth. Functional food research has significantly increased over the last decade but few studies have addressed the bioavailability of active ingredients for clinical efficacy. Baked goods such as bread, biscuits and cake are popular categories for innovation due to their widespread consumption. These new developments have often impacted on organoleptic properties of the finished products and thus consumer acceptance. Blending of bioactive ingredients may overcome this deficit. However, an understanding of the role of the microbiome in health has indicated that the efficacy of functional foods is unlikely to be uniform within the population. Further growth in the functional foods market, is likely to require greater evidence of the bioavailability of active ingredients, clinical effect and support for health claims by regulators especially in the EU.

Ensuring the future of functional foods

Many types of research have distinctly addressed the efficacy of natural plant metabolites used for human consumption both in cell culture and preclinical animal model systems. However, these in vitro and in vivo effects have not been able to be translated for clinical use because of several factors such as inefficient systemic delivery and bioavailability of promising agents that significantly contribute to this disconnection. Over the past decades, extraordinary advances have been made successfully on the development of novel drug delivery systems for encapsulation of plant active metabolites including organic, inorganic and hybrid nanoparticles. The advanced formulas are confirmed to have extraordinary benefits over conventional and previously used systems in the manner of solubility, bioavailability, toxicity, pharmacological activity, stability, distribution, sustained delivery, and both physical and chemical degradation. The current review highlights the development of novel nanocarrier for plant active compounds, their method of preparation, type of active ingredients, and their biomedical applications.

Novel Drug Delivery Systems for Loading of Natural Plant Extracts and Their Biomedical Applications.

Curcumin and resveratrol are natural compounds whose strong antioxidant activities are highly beneficial in the human diet. Unfortunately, their physicochemical properties result in poor stability in their chemical and antioxidant activities, which limits their utilization in food and pharmaceutical applications. In this study, liposomal nanoencapsulation was developed as a strategy to overcome these limitations and improve the antioxidant effects of these compounds. The physicochemical characteristics of co-encapsulated liposomes were evaluated and compared to formulations containing each compound individually. Liposomes co-encapsulating curcumin and resveratrol presented a lower particle size, lower polydispersity index and greater encapsulation efficiency. The formulation of liposomes co-loading curcumin and resveratrol at 5 : 1, exhibited the lowest particle size (77.50 nm), lowest polydispersity index (0.193), highest encapsulation efficiency (reaching 80.42 ± 2.12%), and strongest 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging, lipid peroxidation inhibition capacity and reducing power. Additionally, liposomes loading both curcumin and resveratrol displayed a higher ability during preparation, storage, heating and surfactant shock than those loaded with individual polyphenol. Infrared spectroscopic and fluorescence techniques demonstrated that the curcumin mainly located in the hydrophobic acyl-chain region of liposomes, while the resveratrol orientated to the polar head groups. These orientations could have synergistic effects on the stabilization of liposomes. Our findings should guide the rational design of a co-delivery liposomal system regarding the location and orientation of bioactive compounds inside the lipid bilayer.

Liposome co-encapsulation as a strategy for the delivery of curcumin and resveratrol

A review on mushroom-derived bioactive peptides: Preparation and biological activities

The present study investigated the antibacterial activity and underlying mechanisms of ginkgolic acid (GA) C15:1 monomer using green fluorescent protein (GFP)-labeled bacteria strains. GA presented significant antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria but generally did not affect the growth of Gram-negative bacteria. The studies of the antibacterial mechanism indicated that large amounts of GA (C15:1) could penetrate GFP-labeled Bacillus amyloliquefaciens in a short period of time, and as a result, led to the quenching of GFP in bacteria. In vitro results demonstrated that GA (C15:1) could inhibit the activity of multiple proteins including DNA polymerase. In vivo results showed that GA (C15:1) could significantly inhibit the biosynthesis of DNA, RNA and B. amyloliquefaciens proteins. We speculated that GA (C15:1) achieved its antibacterial effect through inhibiting the protein activity of B. amyloliquefaciens. GA (C15:1) could not penetrate Gram-negative bacteria in large amounts, and the lipid soluble components in the bacterial cell wall could intercept GA (C15:1), which was one of the primary reasons that GA (C15:1) did not have a significant antibacterial effect on Gram-negative bacteria.

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The antibacterial activity and mechanism of ginkgolic acid C15:1

Ginkgo biloba extracts-loaded starch nano-spheres: Preparation, characterization, and in vitro release kinetics.

Ginkgolic acids (GAs) are generally identified as the allergen in ginkgo seeds. The effect of steaming and microwave treatment on GAs in ginkgo seeds was investigated in this paper. GAs were extracted with ethanol/water (85:15, v/v) and detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results indicated that GAs contents decreased significantly after heating treatments compared to the control. After steaming (115 °C, 75 min) and microwave treatment (1000 W, 6 min), GAs contents reduced with 54.5 and 27.0%, respectively. Three main GAs were detected by HPLC, and the alkyl side chains of which were C13:0, C15:1 and C17:1, respectively. Steaming and microwave treatment could effectively decrease GAs contents in ginkgo seeds, which could be used in the industrial production of ginkgo foods.

Effect of heating on the content and composition of ginkgolic acids in ginkgo seeds

Morchella protein hydrolysate (MPH) is produced from an edible and medicinal fungus, Morchella esculenta (L.), and exhibits antioxidant activity. In order to further improve the antioxidant activit...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19476337.2017.1389989

Improvement of antioxidant activity of Morchella esculenta protein hydrolysate by optimized glycosylation reaction

The antivitamin B6, 4'- O-methylpyridoxine (MPN); its glucoside, 4'- O-methylpyridoxine-5'-glucoside (MPNG); and vitamin B6 compounds, including pyridoxal (PL), pyridoxamine, pyridoxine, pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP), and pyridoxamine-5'-phosphate, exist in Ginkgo biloba seeds, which are widely used as food and medicine This work aimed to determine the MPN analogues in G biloba seeds at different growth stages in terms of cultivars and ages of trees The highest total MPN contents of 24930, 29562, and 26785 μg/g were obtained in the mature stages of three selected G biloba samples The total contents of vitamin B6 compounds decreased significantly in the entire growth period of the three samples Principal-component analysis revealed that MPN and MPNG were important contributors in the MPN-analogue metabolism of G biloba seeds The influence of the cultivar on the content and composition of MPN analogues was greater than that of the age of the G biloba tree

Gongjian Fan

Papers

The antibacterial activity and mechanism of ginkgolic acid C15:1

Ginkgo biloba extracts-loaded starch nano-spheres: Preparation, characterization, and in vitro release kinetics.

Effect of heating on the content and composition of ginkgolic acids in ginkgo seeds

Improvement of antioxidant activity of Morchella esculenta protein hydrolysate by optimized glycosylation reaction

Determination and Comparison of 4′-O-Methylpyridoxine Analogues in Ginkgo biloba Seeds at Different Growth Stages