engleski

Electrospun nanofibres as an emerging delivery system for phenylethanoid glycosides: preparation and in vitro evaluation

Today, the global market is strongly influenced by environmental awareness and a health-promoting lifestyle, underlined by innovative food concepts that offer both nutritional and bioactive value with the aim of preventing various health diseases. With Millennials being the biggest proponents of consuming herbal preparations and phytochemicals, i.e. dietary fibres, vitamins and polyphenols, the functional foods niche has never been more attractive. Polyphenols, as the most studied group of bioactive compounds, possess remarkable biological potential, e.g. free radical scavenging, antimutagenic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial etc. Susceptibility to degradation, unpleasant sensory profile, relatively low bioavailability and bioaccessibility are significant drawbacks when it comes to incorporating polyphenols into food, but various encapsulation techniques serve as effective solutions for maintaining functionality, improving their stability and prolonged release. Electrospinning technology represents an innovative technique for enclosing active agents within carbohydrate or/and protein (bio)polymer under a highvoltage electric field to produce nanofibres with advanced structural properties. For the production of polyphenol-loaded nanofibres, defined concentration of pullulan (PUL) and polyethylene oxide (PEO) solutions in concentrated water extract (100 °C, 30 min, 1g:100 mL) of plant species Mountain Germander (Teucrium montanum ; collected from Varivode, Šibensko- kninska županija) were prepared. The impact of plant extract on conductivity, viscosity and surface tension of solutions was measured and compared with PUL and PEO solutions with distilled water. Encapsulation efficiency was monitored by measuring total phenolic content (TPC) and DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay, while the predominant phenolic compoundsechinacoside and verbascoside were analyzed using HPLCDAD. Morphological characterization of obtained nanofibres was studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). According to the results, nanofibrous mats with 15 % PUL (w/w) were evaluated to have the highest encapsulation efficiency (echinacoside: 92.92%, verbascoside: 49.21 %), homogeneous and bead- free surface morphology. These preliminary results could serve as a basis for further optimization of solutions for the preparation of nanomaterials, enriched with functional agents.

Electrospun nanofibres ; T. montanum ; polyphenols ; in vitro digestion

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