Emulsion-based delivery systems for curcumin: Encapsulation and interaction mechanism between debranched starch and curcumin

Curcumin has been widely recognized as health-promoting compound. However, the intrinsic hydrophobicity, chemical instability and photodegradation limits its applications in foods. In this study, a novel emulsion was developed to encapsulate curcumin using debranched starch (DBS). The encapsulation efficiency of curcumin was 71.11% with a loading rate of 12.07%. The prepared emulsions showed better stability and solubility of curcumin than those stabilized only with Tween80 and lectin. The DBS incorporated emulsion had a uniform droplet size distribution with an average value of b1 mu m. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation showed that the water bridge between debranched starch and curcumin may play an important role in the complexation process, thus contributing to a better performance of the emulsion. This work shed light on the encapsulation process and interaction between DBS and curcumin, which is valuable to develop new emulsion-based delivery systems for bioactive lipophilic compounds using modified starch. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.