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Review
. 2017 Jan;25(1):3-15.
doi: 10.1016/j.jfda.2016.11.004. Epub 2016 Dec 7.

Food macromolecule based nanodelivery systems for enhancing the bioavailability of polyphenols

Bing Hu  1 , Xixia Liu  1   2 , Chunlan Zhang  3 , Xiaoxiong Zeng  1
Affiliations
Review

Food macromolecule based nanodelivery systems for enhancing the bioavailability of polyphenols

Bing Hu et al. J Food Drug Anal. 2017 Jan.

Abstract

Diet polyphenols-primarily categorized into flavonoids (e.g., flavonols, flavones, flavan-3-ols, anthocyanidins, flavanones, and isoflavones) and nonflavonoids (with major subclasses of stilbenes and phenolic acids)-are reported to have health-promoting effects, such as antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticarcinoma, antimicrobial, antiviral, and cardioprotective properties. However, their applications in functional foods or medicine are limited because of their inefficient systemic delivery and poor oral bioavailability. Epigallocatechin-3-gallate, curcumin, and resveratrol are the well-known representatives of the bioactive diet polyphenols but with poor bioavailability. Food macromolecule based nanoparticles have been fabricated using reassembled proteins, crosslinked polysaccharides, protein-polysaccharide conjugates (complexes), as well as emulsified lipid via safe procedures that could be applied in food. The human gastrointestinal digestion tract is the first place where the food grade macromolecule nanoparticles exert their effects on improving the bioavailability of diet polyphenols, via enhancing their solubility, preventing their degradation in the intestinal environment, elevating the permeation in small intestine, and even increasing their contents in the bloodstream. We contend that the stability and structure behaviors of nanocarriers in the gastrointestinal tract environment and the effects of nanoencapsulation on the metabolism of polyphenols warrant more focused attention in further studies.

Keywords: bioavailability; encapsulation; macromolecules; nanoparticles; polyphenols.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The chemical structure of epigallocatechin-3-gallate, resveratrol, and curcumin.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Basic chemical structures of the dietary flavonoids.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Summarization of the factors accounting for the low bioavailability of polyphenols.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Formation of food macromolecule nanoparticles for enhancing the bioavailability of polyphenols (I, polysaccharide nanocomplexes; II, protein–polysaccharide complex or conjugate nanoparticles; III, protein nanoparticles; IV, solid lipid nanoparticles).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31501488), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province–Outstanding Youth Foundation (BK20160075), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (KJQN201648, KYLH201601), Open Foundation of Hubei Key Laboratory of Edible Wild Plants Conservation and Utilization, Grant No: EWPL201504.
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