Preparation and evaluation of vitamin C and folic acid-coloaded antioxidant liposomes

ABSTRACT

Vitamin C (VC) and folic acid (FA) are the important nutrients and antioxidants in human body. To protect them from pro-oxidant elements and reveal their co-operation effects, VC-loaded liposomes (VC-Lip), FA-loaded liposomes (FA-Lip), and their coloaded liposomes (VCFA-Lip) are prepared using the modified ethanol injection method in this study. The properties of the prepared liposomes including morphology, encapsulation efficiency, DPPH radical scavenging activity, hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, and stability are determined and discussed in detail. The experimental results show that the vesicle size of the prepared liposomes are about 100–150 nm. The encapsulation efficiency of VC- and FA-coloaded liposomes is higher than that of the individual loaded ones. In vitro antioxidant activity study shows that the prepared liposomes have excellent antioxidant activity and the co-operation of VC and FA are better than the individual ones. Furthermore, the stability experiment reveals that the coloaded liposomes have a good stability in the relatively low temperature. These results indicate that VC- and FA-coloaded liposomes could be used as an effective antioxidant and it could be applied as a promising delivery system for the antioxidant defense system to food industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Antioxidant activity
• coloaded antioxidant liposomes
• co-operation effect
• folic acid
• vitamin C

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by National Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130602), Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.