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Ball milling offers green approach for size reduction of starch granules to nano scale size. In this research work, the starch from two underutilised cereal varieties viz. foxtail starch (FS) and sorghum starch (SS) were milled to achieve the desired nanometric range with mean particle diameter of 467.98 and 271.12 nm for nano foxtail (FSN) and nano sorghum starch (SSN), which were highly stable as revealed by zeta potential analysis. Functional attributes like solubility, swelling index, apparent amylose content, emulsifying and pasting properties were evaluated. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) clearly revealed damaged starch granules produed by the process of milling. X-ray diffraction (XRD) displayed decrease in crystallinity upon milling to 16.08% (SSN) and 18.56% (FSN) and disappearance of some peaks. Attenuated total reflectance-fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) also revealed reduced crystallinity as confirmed by the decreased absorbance ratio of 1047/1022 cm−1 in nano starch particles. Rheological analysis displayed shear thinning behaviour of nano starch samples as evaluated using Herschel-bulkely model and Power law. The nano starch samples exhibited comparatively low thermal gelatinisation temperatures as compared to native counter particles. Moreover, the nano-encapsulated starch samples offered more resistance to in-vitro digestion and showed control release of folic acid at target sites.

In this work, vitamin D3 was nanoencapsulated into the β-glucan matrix (Glu-VD3) using innovative green technology (supercritical carbon dioxide). Glu-VD3 was characterized using dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The particle size of the Glu-VD3 capsule was in the range 85–110 nm. FTIR revealed the interactions between the vitamin D3 (VD3) and chemical groups of β-glucan, indicating the successful entrapment of VD3 in the β-glucan. The encapsulation efficiency of VD3 was 88.31 ± 24%. Further, vitamin D3 loaded in the β-glucan matrix showed a controlled release behavior with increased antioxidant and anticancerous properties in a concentration-dependent manner. Therefore, it was concluded that the Glu-VD3 can be used as a functional ingredient in different food products to enhance the bioavailability of VD3 and protect it from thermal degradation during processing thereby enhancing the nutraceutical potential.