Insights into the physicochemical stability of ammonium glycyrrhizate and curcumin nanocomplexes

Yonghui Wang; Jingwen Wu; Weiyun Guo; Xueli Gao; Guanghui Li; Shenghua He; Jihong Huang; Zirui Du; Sa Wen

doi:10.1515/ijfe-2024-0244

Abstract

In this study, ammonium glycyrrhizate (AG) based curcumin (Cur) nanocomplexes (AG/Cur NCs) were prepared. Water solubility of Cur and the physical stability of AG/Cur NCs under varying conditions were investigated, and the stability and bioaccessibility of Cur during in vitro digestion were also studied. The results showed that Cur solubility and physical stability of the NCs increased significantly (p < 0.05) with the increase of AG concentration. The solubility of encapsulated Cur and the physical stability of AG/Cur NCs were affected by the changes in pH, salt concentration, and temperature, but the NCs showed good stability against various environmental conditions. After in vitro simulated digestion, the stability and bioaccessibility of the embedded Cur in the NCs were 6.54 % and 21.70 % respectively, higher than that of free Cur. The formulation of AG/Cur NCs significantly enhanced the solubility and stability of Cur, indicating substantial promising for Cur-based functional foods.

Keywords: ammonium glycyrrhizate; curcumin; nanocomplex; physicochemical stability

Corresponding authors: Yonghui Wang and Jihong Huang, Food and Pharmacy College, Xuchang University, Xuchang 461000, China; and Collaborative Innovation Center of Functional Food Green Manufacturing, Xuchang 461000, China, E-mail: yonghuione@126.com (Y. Wang), huangjih1216@126.com (J. Huang)

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the financial support from the open program of Henan province’s collaborative innovation center of functional food green manufacturing (2024XTKF012), the science and technology projects of Xuchang University (2024ZD012), the Henan entrepreneurship training program (202410480046), teachers Key Project in Universities of Henan Province (2024GGJS120), and the Research-based Teaching Project in Universities of Henan Province (2023-388-120).

Research ethics: Not applicable.
Informed consent: Not applicable.
Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. Yonghui Wang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing-original draft. Jingwen Wu: Data curation, Assisting in particle size determination. Shenghua He: Supervision, Writing-review & editing. Jihong Huang: Resources, Visualization, Supervision. Weiyun Guo: Data curation, Investigation, Supervision. Xueli Gao: Project administration, Writing-reviewing and editing, Funding acquisition. Guanghui Li: Methodology, Review and editing. Zirui Du: Experiment, Data curation. Sa Wen: Experiment, Data curation.
Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: Open program of Henan province’s collaborative innovation center of functional food green manufacturing (2024XTKF012), the science and technology projects of Xuchang University (2024ZD012), the Henan entrepreneurship training program (202410480046), teachers Key Project in Universities of Henan Province (2024GGJS120), and the Research-based Teaching Project in Universities of Henan Province (2023-388-120).
Data availability: Not applicable.

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Supplementary Material

This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ijfe-2024-0244).

Received: 2024-10-31

Accepted: 2025-02-05

Published Online: 2025-03-03

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Supplementary Material