Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Functional foods provide the body with the required amount of vitamins, fats, proteins, carbohydrates, etc, needed for its healthy survival. There is a strong market demand for a food delivery system that provides medical or health benefits, including the prevention and/or treatment of a chronic disease. Such delivery systems are expected to contain the following ingredients: vitamins, minerals, herbs or other botanicals, amino acid, dietary substances to supplement the diet by increasing the total daily intake, metabolites, constituents, extracts, or combinations of these ingredients. Existing delivery systems of micronutrients exist in the form of pills, capsules, tablets, or liquid formulations. There is a need for new nutrient-dense food materials/products that provide substantial amounts of bioactive compounds targeted for group populations with specific health requirements. Development of these innovative products will allow normal growth and development of children, health promotion for people of all ages, and reduction of risk for a number of chronic diseases that are major public health problems. In course of this project we have developed a new nanotechnology enabled process to produce nutrient dense functionalized edible nanocomposite films as customized micronutrient and nutraceutical delivery systems. Developed novell food grade nanocomposites are highly customizable and versatile delivery system that provides critical bioactives (micronutrients and nutraceuticals) to groups of population with special health needs. Possibility to print colored labels/images on the edible substrates (zein, starch-based materials, cellulose derivatives etc.) provide additional benefit of increased convenience and psychological satisfaction. Developed technology which involves microdeposition of bioactives on the edible film surfaces will have high versatility than the traditional formulation approaches where target bioactive compounds are integration into food matrices . PARTICIPANTS: Within framework of the project several training oportunities has been explored: - undergraduate research training; - summer research experience for undergraduate students (in collaboration with Rutgers RISE program); - project-based learning experience for graduate students involved in the research. TARGET AUDIENCES: Main stakeholders for this project will be manufacturers of high potency nutraceuticals for population groups with special(e.g. pediatric and geriatric). This technology will trigger a profound change on how we develop, approve, and manufacture nutraceutical products. They will enable personalized nutraceutical supply in two critical ways: (1) by making it possible to create product units precisely controlled composition and structure, which can then be used to fine-tune performance, and (2) by creating a manufacturing technology platform suitable for personalized dosing once knowledge is available. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Upon successful commercialization of the proposed microdeposition process to produce nutrient dense functionalized edible nanocomposite films as nutraceutical delivery systems, the resulting functional composites will offer a number of additional advantages. The main business applications will be (1) Formulation R&D (competitive advantage: ability to formulate personalized products with multiple ingredients in a convenient and safe manner) (2) Small scale supply manufacturing for combination micronutrent delivery (3) Routine manufacturing (ability to control dosing more accurately for a wide range of doses of multiple nutraceuticals, Product Quality by Design, real-time close-loop control where 100% of product is tested non-destructively) (4) Personalized dosing, leading to personalized microbatch manufacturing
Publications
- A. Sahay et al., 2010 AUTOMATED DROP-ON-DEMAND SYSTEM WITH REAL-TIME GRAVIMETRIC CONTROL FOR PRECISE DOSAGE FORMULATION, Journal of lab automation,in press
- P. Takhistov, 2010 "FABRICATION OF NUTRACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS UTILIZING MICRO-DOSING TECHNOLOGY" patent application, submitted
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Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A new method to engineer zein films with controlled surface morphology and hydrophilicity has been developed. The resulted surface morphology and surface hydrophilicity have been studied by tapping mode atomic force microscopy (TP-AFM) and a combination of water contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), respectively. Our AFM results revealed that zein films cast from acetic acid showed much smoother surface compared to those cast from ethanol aqueous solutions. Furthermore, zein films of controlled hydrophilicity have been engineered through the use of UV/ozone treatment, which can efficiently decrease the water contact angles of zein films from ~80 to less than 10 within 130 s. XPS results suggest that the difference in surface hydrophilicity of zein films is due to the difference in surface elemental composition, and UV/Ozone treatment converted some of the surface methyl groups mainly to carbonyl groups, therefore decreased the water contact angles and increased the surface hydrophilicity of zein films. This research opens up new opportunities of using zein as barrier materials and delivery vehicles for functional food ingredients, drugs, and dietary supplements. Gelatin-based biopolymer films, despite of many potential industrial applications, exhibit some limitations due to concerns in their mechanical, thermal, and water sensitive properties. Recently, we have successfully improved these properties by chemical crosslinking of glycerol-plasticized gelatin films at acidic pH. Mechanical and thermal properties of gelatin films have been investigated as a function of environmental relative humidity (% RH) and the concentration of crosslinking agent (i.e., glutaraldehyde). Our results show that mechanical properties of gelatin films are strongly affected by the humidity conditions. When the RH increases from 11% to 94%, the elastic modulus and tensile strength of gelatin films decrease by approximately 190 and 40 times, respectively. Similarly, the strain at break increases from ~15% (11% RH) to ~190% (84% RH). In addition, the glass transition temperature (Tg), helix-coil transition temperature (Tm), and helix-coil transition enthalpy (∆H) decrease as a result of water uptake at higher RH values. Moisture sorption isotherms obtained at 30C demonstrated that, at the same relative humidity, crosslinked gelatin films were able to absorb a larger amount of water than the untreated films, which could be due to the formation of larger amorphous phase within the crosslinked protein network. We have also carried out nanoindentation study of the Young's moduli of chitosan of different molecular weights and under different relative humidity. In addition, the effects of solvent (ethanol versus acetic acid) on the Young's moduli of zein films have also been investigated. We are new analyzing the data, and the results will be included in next progress report. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Curcumin is a natural anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogensis agent. The major problem of curcumin is its poor oral bioavailability. In this paper, curcumin O/W nanoemulsions, which were prepared by high-pressure homogenization of the mixtures of water, Tween 40, and medium chain triacylglycerols (MCT) that contained pre-dissolved curcumin with the help of Span 20, has been successfully prepared and characterized, and the studies on its in vitro skin absorption as well as its in vivo inhibitory effects on chemically induced inflammation on mice have been reported. The averaged particle diameters of the curcumin nanoemulsions were 135.0 nm and 133.9nm for nanoemulsions containing 1.0% and 1.5% curcumin, respectively. The encapsulation efficiencies of nanoemulsions containing 1.0% and 1.5% curcumin were 77.5% and 71.5% respectively, and reduced to 61.1% and 58.6% respectively after 5.5 days storage. After 12 h treatment at 37C, in vitro skin absorption of nanoemulsion containing 1.0% curcumin was 24.9 μg/cm2. Oral administration of nanoemulsified curcumin could inhibit 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced inflammation on mouse ears by 100%. ELISA and immune-blotting results also showed dose-responsive and significant inhibition of pro-inflammatory factors IL-1beta, IL-6, MMP-9, TGF beta, TIMP, MIP-2, and cyclin D1.
Publications
- Chitpan, M.; Wang, X. Y.; Ho, C.-T.; and Huang, Q. R. (2007) "Monitoring the Binding Processes of Black Tea Thearubigins to Bovine Serum Albumin Surface using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring", Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55, 10110-10116
- Shi, K., Kokini, J., Huang, Q. R. (2009) Engineering Zein Films with Controlled Surface Morphology and Hydrophilicity, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, in press.
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Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The design of a platform for nutraceuticals delivery utilizing edible films and drop on demand technology requires an intimate knowledge of drug release kinetics, chemical interactions, and adhesion characteristics. Adhesion properties can be manipulated to alter the drug type and delivery of the active ingredients. In particular edible film substrates can be manufactured in such a manner that enable drop on demand formulation for a variety of pharmaceutical compounds. Our experimental data show a direct relationship between HPC, PEG concentration with surface energy parameters. Also noted is that a functional relationship was found between PEG molecular weight and adhesion characteristics. Utilizing these two findings we are able to predict adhesion characteristics and therefore are able to build the foundation for a an edible functional substrate in drug drop on demand technology.
TARGET AUDIENCES: Food engineering and Food chemistry community in the industry and academia
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: no project modifications at this point
Impacts
Functional foods are food products that aid specific bodily functions in addition to being nutritious. We are working on the development of new nanotechnology-enabled functional food product based on nutraceuticals and microelements nano-composites. Our approach is based on ink-jet deposition of active compounds onto edible substrate. The basic technical concept of the this study is to use a modified ink-jet printing system as a dosage system where nutraceuticals, excipients, and release modifiers are contained in "cartridges" and are deposited on an edible substrate (edible film) forming food nano-composite. Our experimental data show a direct relationship between HPC, PEG concentration with surface energy parameters. Also noted is that a functional relationship was found between PEG molecular weight and adhesion characteristics. Utilizing these two findings we are able to predict adhesion characteristics and therefore are able to build the foundation for a an edible
functional substrate in drug drop on demand technology. additionally, our progresses so far have demonstrated that the nanoemulsion-based curcumin "ink" can enhance the anti-inflammation activity of curcumin, as well as the importance of choosing proper edible films for the liquid-jet deposition of nutraceuticals, especially when the tea polyphenols are used as the "ink".
Publications
- Wang, X. Y.; Wang, Y. -W.; Jiang, Y.; Huang, M. T.; Ho, C. T.; and Huang, Q. R. (2008) Enhancing Anti-inflammation Activity of Curcumin Through O/W Nanoemulsions, Food Chemistry, 108, 419-424.
- Wang, X. Y.; Ho, C. T.; and Huang, Q. R. (2007) Investigation of Adsorption Behavior of Epigallocatechin Gallate on Bovine Serum Albumin Surface using Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 55, 4987-4992.
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