A green chemistry approach for nanoencapsulation of bioactive compound - Curcumin

•Solvent free nanoencapsulation method for curcumin.•Solubilizing agent for curcumin: short chain triglyceride due to high polar groups on surface.•Wall material: sodium caseinate, concentration variation from 0.1 to 10% studied.•Optimum concentration 5% sodium caseinate produced 40 nm encapsulated particle with 91% encapsulation efficiency.

It is quite common to use inorganic/organic solvents during the encapsulation of curcumin. Therefore, it is not suitable to realize the food applications of this bioactive compound. In the present work, the objective was to employ a solvent-free green chemistry approach to encapsulate curcumin in nano-form. The milk fat was used as oil medium and the milk protein sodium caseinate as a wall material. Varied concentrations of wall material were systemically studied and the transmission electron microscopic images confirmed the particle size of spray dried powder to be in the range of 40-250 nm. The encapsulation efficiency was calculated to be 91% and loading capacity was 0.9% with respect to 0.99% theoretical loading for the sample having an optimum amount of 5% of wall material. The antioxidant activities of this nanoencapsulated curcumin were found to be higher than its native counterpart.