Produção e caracterização de nanopartículas do concentrado proteico do soro de leite (WPC)

Abstract

Nanotechnology relates to a technology implemented at the nanoscale with applications in the real world, basically, it is the understanding and control of matter in physical dimensions below 1000nm, it currently represents an important area of interest and development of modern science. The use of nanotechnology has become the basis for industrial applications, in addition, it currently demonstrates exponential growth within the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics industries, among many other branches. The application of these nanomaterials demonstrate improvement in production lines, packaging, shelf life and bioavailability. The present study deals with the production of nanoparticles from whey protein concentrate through the crosslinking technique with two organic acids, citric and tannic. The synthesized nanoparticles and acid-free WPC solutions were characterized by means of thermal, spectroscopic, and microscopic evaluations. In view of this, it was verified that the addition of organic acids as crosslinking agents promoted an improvement in the stability of the nanoparticles, where it was possible to conclude that nanoparticles obtained with whey protein crosslinked with tannic acid presented a better performance, as it was observed in the DLS and AFM a smaller nanoparticle size for the Tan-2 sample, in addition the FTIR spectra of the sample were the ones that most differed from the spectra of the samples without acid, confirming the incorporation of the acid of the nanoparticles. Therefore, the synthesized nanoparticles can be used as matrices for encapsulation of bioactive compounds through the Pickering emulsion technique, where WPC nanoparticles can act as substitutes for conventional surfactants and stabilizers.