A Novel Method for Stabilizing Zein Gel Particles to Salt Ion-Induced Aggregation

Abstract

The destabilization of zein gel particles by salt ions seriously limits their practical application. In this study, zein gel particles exhibiting excellent stability to salt ions were developed by grafting gum arabic with tannic acid. Gum arabic (GA) was first coated onto the surface of zein gel particles, followed by addition of tannic acid to further reinforce non-covalent cross-linking between GA and the zein gel particle surface. The stability of the gel particle dispersions was characterized by Turbiscan analysis, gel particle diameter changes and visual inspection of phase separation. The tannic acid-treated zein–GA gel particles were highly protected from precipitation or aggregation in the presence of NaCl (0–3 mol/L) at different pH values (4.0, 7.0 or 8.5). The gel particles prepared in this study will therefore have broader applicability in different pH and salt ions ion environments.

A Novel Strategy to Enhance the pH Stability of Zein Particles through Octenyl Succinic Anhydride-Modified Starch: The Role of Preparation pH

“…The pH of the zein solution and the OSA-modified starch solution were adjusted to 4.0 or 9.0 with 0.1 mol/L of HCl or NaOH solution, respectively. The zein/OSA-modified starch nanoparticles were prepared using the antisolvent precipitation method [7] with some modifications. A total of 20 mL of 2% (w/v) zein aqueous ethanol solution was added drop by drop into 380 mL of OSA-modified starch solution with the same pH to fabricate zein/OSA-modified starch nanoparticles.…”

“…It has been reported that the interactions between protein and polysaccharide significantly influence the properties of nanoparticles, such as conformational stability [6]. To improve the stability of zein nanoparticles against different pH levels, many biopolymers have been used to stabilize zein by forming complex particles [3] such as gum arabic [7], alginate oligosaccharide [2], whey protein isolate [8], and ι-carrageenan [5]. Thus, combining zein with biopolymers has proven to be an effective strategy to prevent zein nanoparticles from aggregation and precipitation over a broad pH range.…”

Delivery of Curcumin Using Zein-Gum Arabic-Tannic Acid Composite Particles: Fabrication, Characterization, and in vitro Release Properties

“…In our previous work, we designed zein-gum arabic-TA (zein-GA-TA) composite particles with high physical stability based on the physicochemical properties of TA ( 16 ). The introduction of TA could link the protein part of GA crosslinked with the protein on the surface of the zein particles through hydrogen bonding.…”