Application of Nanotechnology to Enhance Adsorption and Bioavailability of Procyanidins: A Review

ABSTRACT

Procyanidins (PCs), as the second most abundant natural phenolic compounds on earth, have gained much attention due to their various health promoting effects. However, the proven benefits of PCs have some stability and bioavailability issues. Nano drug delivery systems are proposed to improve their pharmacokinetic profiles, including stability and bioavailability problems. The proper process about making nano-PCs can enhance the solubility of polymeric procyanidins (PPCs) and protect oligomeric procyanidins (OPCs) from degradation. This review provides a systematic summary of health benefits of PCs and the advanced nanotechnology to improve adsorption and bioavailability of PCs, which in turn would be helpful in increasing their therapy efficacy.

Graphical abstract

KEYWORDS:

• Adsorption
• bioavailability
• nanotechnology
• procyanidins
• therapy efficacy

Highlights

• The advanced nanotechnologies for procyanidins are reported here

• Nano-approaches are applied to encapsulate and control the release of procyanidins

• Possible mechanisms for nanoparticles enhancing bioavailability are provided

• Challenges, limitations and prospects of nanotechnological approaches are discussed

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (2016YFC0500305-02).Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interes.