Fat-replacing and encapsulation properties of starch using annealing treatment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using starch and starch nanoparticles treated with annealing and ultrasonication as an oral delivery carrier for curcumin. Despite of various pharmacological activities of curcumin, its application as a functional food ingredient has been limited due to extremely poor solubility and low bioavailability. To overcome these limitations, curcumin-loaded starch and starch nanoparticles were prepared by annealing and ultrasonic treatment and curcumin was loaded in two ways, either by mixing curcumin with starch suspension or by annealing starch with curcumin solution. In morphological properties, the curcumin-loaded starches was spherical shape and the curcumin-loaded starch nanoparticles was aggregated each other with irregular polygonal shape . The entrapment efficiency of curcumin-loaded starches were about 90% and higher compared to those of starch nanoparticles (70%). In addition, curcumin-loaded starch nanoparticles showed significantly higher solubility (19-29 times) compared to starches. In in vitro release test, the use of annealed starch as carrier and loading method using annealing treatment can sustained the curcumin release from starch and starch nanoparticles. From these results, it is confirmed that the annealed starch and starch nanoparticle have the potential as nutrient carrier and the loading method using annealing treatment could be appropriate encapsulation technique for sustained release.Maste