A review of transglycosylated compounds as food additives to enhance the solubility and oral absorption of hydrophobic compounds in nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals

Abstract

Transglycosylation has been used to modify the physicochemical properties of original compounds. As a result, transglycosylated compounds can form molecular aggregates in size ranges of a few nanometers in an aqueous medium when their concentrations exceed a specific level. Incorporating these hydrophobic compounds has been observed to enhance the solubility of hydrophobic compounds into aggregate structures. Thus, this review introduces four transglycosylated compounds as food additives that can enhance the solubility and oral absorption of hydrophobic compounds. Here, transglycosylated hesperidin, transglycosylated rutin, transglycosylated naringin, and transglycosylated stevia are the focus as representative substances. Significantly, we observed that amorphous formations containing hydrophobic compounds with transglycosylated compounds improved solubility and oral absorption compared to untreated hydrophobic compounds. Moreover, combining transglycosylated compounds with hydrophilic polymers or surfactants enhanced the solubilizing effects on hydrophobic compounds. Furthermore, the enhanced solubility of hydrophobic compounds improved their oral absorption. Transglycosylated compounds also influenced nanoparticle preparation of hydrophobic compounds as a dispersant. This study demonstrated the benefits of transglycosylated compounds in developing supplements and nutraceuticals of hydrophobic compounds with poor aqueous solubility.

Keywords:

• Amorphous
• flavonoids
• nanoparticles
• oral absorption
• solubility enhancement
• transglycosylation

Acknowledgments

We thank Toyo Sugar Refining Co. Ltd. for the kind gift of transglycosylated hesperidin (Hsp-G), transglycosylated rutin (Rutin-G), transglycosylated naringin (Naringin-G), and transglycosylated stevia (Stevia-G).

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the JSPS KAKENHI grant (No. 18K06614, 25504018; Y. Tozuka). The authors acknowledge funding support from Toyo Sugar Refining Co. Ltd.