Antioxidant properties of nano encapsulated curcumin in zein/cress seed gum

Curcumin is a natural yellow pigment with higher bioactive compounds and low solubility. Encapsulation is a general method to improve the antioxidant activity of insoluble compounds. In the current study the curcumin was encapsulated in zein or zein/cress seed gum (CSG) wall material. Z-average size, PDI, zeta potential and encapsulation efficiency (EE) of particles were measured. The z-average size, PDI, and EE of zein/CSG was lower than zein particles. Also, zein particles exhibited positive zeta potential, whereas, Zein/CSG particles showed the negative zeta potential. SEM result stated that zein and CSG are suitable polymer to encapsulation. Encapsulation also cause to enhance antioxidant activity of curcumin in both DPPH free radical scavenging and ferric reduction assay. The result of this study introduced zein and CSG as polymer for encapsulating curcumin