Food and beverages enrichment with water-insoluble health-promoting nutraceuticals is important, but technologically challenging. Sugar beet pectin (SBP) is a natural dietary fiber with high emulsifying capacity. However, its potential as a natural encapsulator of hydrophobic nutraceuticals for beverage enrichment, has hardly been explored. Curcumin is a potent antioxidant with numerous attributed health benefits, but very low aqueous-solubility. We herein explored SBP as a carrier for solubilization and protection of curcumin (CUR). Using spectrofluorimetry, the CUR-SBP binding constant determined was (6.74 ± 0.5) ∙ 10⁵M⁻¹. As CUR:SBP molar ratio increased from 14:1 to 140:1, CUR encapsulation capacity increased from 14.5 ± 0.8 to 127.4 ± 0.4 mg _{CUR/g SBP}, and encapsulation efficiency moderately decreased from ~100% to 86 ± 7%. The encapsulation in SBP dramatically decreased CUR particle size, from >17 μm to <0.5 μm, in average, and conferred substantial protection to CUR during simulated shelf-life, decreasing the decay rate constant ~7 fold. Therefore, SBP is a potent natural encapsulator for hydrophobic nutraceuticals for food and even clear beverage enrichment.

用不溶于水的促进健康的营养食品来丰富食品和饮料很重要，但在技术上具有挑战性。甜菜果胶（SBP）是一种具有高乳化能力的天然膳食纤维。然而，它作为疏水性营养食品的天然封装剂用于饮料富集的潜力几乎没有被探索过。姜黄素是一种强效抗氧化剂，具有多种健康益处，但水溶性非常低。我们在此探索了 SBP 作为溶解和保护姜黄素 (CUR) 的载体。使用荧光光谱法，确定的 CUR-SBP 结合常数为 (6.74 ± 0.5) ∙ 10 ⁵ M ^-1。随着 CUR:SBP 摩尔比从 14:1 增加到 140:1，CUR 包封能力从 14.5 ± 0.8 增加到 127.4 ± 0.4 mg _{CUR /g SBP}和封装效率从~100% 适度降低到 86 ± 7%。SBP 中的封装显着降低了 CUR 粒径，平均从 >17 μm 到 <0.5 μm，并在模拟保质期内为 CUR 提供了实质性保护，使衰减率常数降低了约 7 倍。因此，SBP 是一种有效的天然封装剂，可用于疏水性营养食品，甚至是澄清饮料的浓缩。