Recent Advances in Pectin-based Nanoencapsulation for Enhancing the Bioavailability of Bioactive Compounds: Curcumin Oral Bioavailability

ABSTRACT

Curcumin has gained much attention due to its wide range of health-benefiting effects. However, its low oral bioavailability hampers its use as bioactive compound for functional foods. Nanoencapsulation is a common technique for improving bioavailability of bioactive compounds. Pectin is one of the most common carriers for curcumin. This review highlights a recent advance in pectin-based nanoencapsulation techniques for the entrapment of various bioactive components. Furthermore, interest is on the entrapment of curcumin in pectin-based nanoparticles, as well as its release profile. Moreover, an addition of natural polymers (polysaccharides and/or proteins) can improve the properties of pectin nano-carriers.

KEYWORDS:

• Pectin
• carrier agent
• nanoencapsulation
• curcumin
• bioactive compounds

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Key Research and Development Project of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. 2018C02G2011105), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31871815).