Elsevier

Carbohydrate Polymers

Volume 274, 15 November 2021, 118596
Carbohydrate Polymers

Starch inclusion complex for the encapsulation and controlled release of bioactive guest compounds

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.carbpol.2021.118596Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A variety of bioactive compounds can form inclusion complex with starch.

  • Methods of preparation, characterization, and guest quantification were developed.

  • Controlled release kinetics were evaluated by both in vitro and in vivo studies.

Abstract

The linear component of starch, especially amylose, is capable of forming inclusion complex (IC) with various small molecules. It could significantly modify the structure and properties of starch, and it could bring beneficial effects when bioactive compounds can be encapsulated. This review discusses the formation and characterization of the starch-guest IC and focuses on the recent developments in the use of starch ICs for the encapsulation and controlled release of bioactive guest compounds. A great number of guest compounds, such as lipids, aroma compounds, pharmaceuticals, and phytochemicals, were studied for their ability to be complexed with starch and/or amylose and some of the formed ICs were evaluated for the chemical stability improvement and the guest release regulation. Starch-guest ICs has a great potential to be a delivery system, as most existing studies demonstrated the enhancement on guest retention and the possibility of controlled release.

Introduction

Starch consists of two homopolymers of glucose: amylose and amylopectin. Amylose is an essentially linear polymer of glucose linked through α-1,4 glyosidic bonds, whereas amylopectin is highly branched, with linear side chains linked by α-1,6 glyosidic bonds (Mottiar & Altosaar, 2011). The linear component of starch, including both amylose and linear side chains of amylopectin, can form inclusion complexes (ICs) with various small molecules, such as iodine (Bluhm & Zugenmaier, 1981; Mottiar & Altosaar, 2011), fatty acids and their esters (Godet, Buleon, Tran, & Colonna, 1993; Lay Ma, Floros, & Ziegler, 2011), alcohols (Nishiyama et al., 2010), and aroma compounds (Ades, Kesselman, Ungar, & Shimoni, 2012a; Jouquand, Ducruet, & Le Bail, 2006; Madene, Jacquot, Scher, & Desobry, 2006; Shi, Hopfer, Ziegler, & Kong, 2019). When forming the ICs, amylose exists as a left-handed single helix with a hydrophilic outer surface and a hydrophobic inner helical cavity to accommodate these guest compounds (Immel & Lichtenthaler, 2000). Starch-guest inclusion complexation is driven by the tendency of amylose to minimize its interaction with water (Heinemann, Conde-Petit, Nuessli, & Escher, 2001). Previous studies pointed out that both intramolecular (Banks & Greenwood, 1971; Bluhm & Zugenmaier, 1981; Karkalas, Ma, Morrison, & Pethrick, 1995; Yamashita & Monobe, 1971) and intermolecular (Winter & Sarko, 1974) forces play critical roles in stabilizing the starch-guest IC. Intramolecular interactions, including Van der Waals force and hydrogen bonds, occur between the turns along the helix to stabilize each single helix. Intermolecular interactions mainly involve the hydrophobic interaction between the hydrophobic amylose helical cavity and nonpolar guest compounds, and hydrogen bonds formed by certain guest molecules with amylose at the helical entrance.

Starch-guest ICs pose noticeable effects on food processing, storage, digestion, nutrient uptake, and health outcomes of starchy foods (Putseys, Lamberts, & Delcour, 2010). The structure and properties of starch could have significantly changed after complexing with guest molecules, such as decreased water susceptibility and delayed retrogradation process (Eliasson, Carlson, & Larsson, 1981; Krog, 1971). The enzymatic digestion of starch could also be retarded, which may have positive effects on many metabolic diseases. Furthermore, the slowly digestible property of starch IC makes it a promising delivery composition for controlled and sustained release of the incorporated guest compounds along the gastrointestinal tract (Tan & Kong, 2020). Indeed, starch ICs with many food and bioactive compounds have been demonstrated, for instance, aroma compounds, functional fatty acids (Lalush, Bar, Zakaria, Eichler, & Shimoni, 2005; Lesmes, Barchechath, & Shimoni, 2008; Lesmes, Cohen, Shener, & Shimoni, 2009), phytochemicals (Cohen, Orlova, Kovalev, Ungar, & Shimoni, 2008), and vitamins (Lay Ma et al., 2011). Yet, relatively fewer studies characterized their release behavior.

Although starch-guest IC has been described for more than a hundred years, the practical utilization of this structure for encapsulating and delivering bioactive compounds is still limited and requires more research efforts. There have been excellent review articles summarizing the formation, properties, functions, and applications of starch-guest ICs (Feng & Zhuang, 2011; Tan & Kong, 2020; Obiro, Sinha Ray, & Emmambux, 2012; Putseys et al., 2010). In this article, we will start with a brief introduction of the formation and characterization of the starch-guest ICs, and then focus on recent developments in the application of starch IC in the encapsulation and controlled release of active guest compounds.

Section snippets

Preparation methods

So far, mainly four methods have been introduced to produce starch-guest IC, including dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) method, alkali method, high temperature method, and pre-formed “empty” helix method (Fig. 1) (Tan & Kong, 2020). In the DMSO method, starch or amylose is dissolved in DMSO solution at around 90 °C and mixed with the guest compound. Then, the mixed solution is diluted with water and allowed to cool, followed by the gradual crystallization of IC. In the alkali method, starch or amylose

Lipids

Lipids are probably the most extensively studied guest compounds for starch ICs. The presence of either native or added lipids can dramatically influence the pasting properties of starch, retard starch retrogradation, and extend the shelf life of baked goods. These are all attributed to the ability of starch to complex with lipids, e.g., starch-fatty acid IC. It is generally accepted that the lipid molecules are located with their aliphatic chain inside the amylose helix cavity and the carboxyl

Conclusions

Starch-guest ICs represent as a unique supramolecular assembly that can enable the encapsulation and delivery of bioactive compounds. The detailed microstructure of starch IC is being elucidated with various techniques and their formation methods are being developed. Increasingly more guest compounds, including functional lipids, aroma compounds, phytochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and etc., have been tested for their ability to be complexed by starch and amylose. Select ICs with bioactive guest

Funding

The authors thank the financial support received from Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (2020J05137), Fujian Project of Young and Middle-aged Teacher Education Research (JAT190341), and Science Foundation of Jimei University (ZQ2019028).

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