Palm stearin and olein binary mixture incorporated into nanostructured lipids carrier: Improvement food functionality for micronutrient delivery

The application of palm stearin (PS) and palm olein (PO) on micronutrient delivery as a food functionality-based nanostructured lipids carrier (NLC) is still limited. For further investigation, this study was proposed to characterize the binary mixture of PS and PO, fractions from crude palm oil (CPO), as a novel system of NLC for beta-carotene delivery. PO and PS, and their binary mixtures were characterized using gas chromatography, thermal analysis, vibrational spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. The PS and PO differed from the number of fatty acids. No specific interaction was observed by vibrational spectroscopy. However, the thermal analysis confirmed that the binary mixture of PS and PO altered the physicochemical characteristic, that is, melting and crystallization behaviors. In addition, the PO had a negligible effect on the crystallinity alteration. Finally, beta-carotene was successfully loaded into PS-PO-based NLC of particle size below 200 nm and stable during storage for a predetermined time. Practical applications The novelty of this work involves the use of derivative components from CPO namely stearin and olein for a promising and potential candidate of the lipids-structured nanocarrier system. In addition, the characterization of the binary mixture between PS and olein is important for designing the proper lipids nano-carrier system. The successful delivery system-based lipids nanocarrier depends on the understanding of fundamental lipids characteristics thoroughly. This work can be applied for macro/micro-nutrient delivery. Thereafter, the use and application of this work can be extended by a food industry for designing and formulating the carrier system particularly for lipophilic micronutrient, which has low bioavailability.