Highly antioxidant carotene-lipid nanocarriers: synthesis and antibacterial activity

The objective of this study was to explore the potential of two natural oils (squalene—Sq and grape seed oil—GSO) to prepare biocompatible antioxidant nanostructured lipid carriers—NLCs as a safety and protective formulation for sensitive β-carotene. For this purpose different oil-in-water nanoemulsions stabilized by a combination of alkylpolyoxy ethylene sorbitans, lecithin and a block copolymer, were prepared using a melt high-shear homogenization process. The physico-chemical characteristics of the carotene-loaded NLCs were firstly investigated in detail. The smaller lipid nanoparticles have been obtained by using Tween 20 as main non-ionic surfactant, with average diameters of about 85 nm for GSO and 89 nm for Sq, with a polydispersity index <0.19. The developed carotene-NLCs presented an excellent physical stability with almost all zeta potential values ranging between −29 ÷ −40 mV. The differential scanning calorimetry analysis showed that the β-carotene incorporation has led to a perturbation of solid lipid matrix with a less ordered arrangement. By UV–Vis spectroscopy it was evidenced that after encapsulation β-carotene adopts a supramolecular structure demonstrated by appearance of a shoulder at 530 nm related to a β-carotene triplet–triplet absorption. The carotene-NLCs have been also evaluated in terms of in vitro antioxidant properties. The presence of Sq and GSO produced a significant effect on the antioxidant capacity of developed NLCs. The samples prepared with GSO and Tween 80 as main surfactant showed the highest antioxidant activity (AA %) against free oxygen radicals, exhibiting an enhancement of 35 % for loaded NLCs, as comparing to pure carotene. In addition to these properties, the ability of NLCs to manifest antibacterial activity was tested against Escherichia coli bacteria. The antibacterial analysis shown that loaded-NLCs develop an effective inhibition zone against bacteria growth and it was dependent in a higher extent on the liquid lipid and carotene concentrations than on their particle size. The antioxidant activity (a), antibacterial behavior against E. coli (b) and TEM image (c) of Carotene loaded—NLCs