Construction of fish scale (Cyprinus carpio L.) gelatin-fatty acid conjugate for loading curcumin: Effect of alkyl chain length on the interaction and stability

Li H 1 , Wang Y 2 , Mustapha WAW 3 , Zhang X 4 , Zeng F 5 , Liu J 6

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Public Health, Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 561113, China
  • 2 College of Food Science & Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China; Institute of Food Processing Technology, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China
  • 3 Department of Food Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Bangi 43600, Malaysia
  • 4 Guizhou Fishery Research Institute, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Science, Guiyang 550025, China
  • 5 Research & Development Center for Eco-Material and Eco-Chemistry, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • 6 School of Public Health, Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 561113, China; Institute of Food Processing Technology, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China; Institute of Horticulture, Guizhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guiyang 550006, China. Electronic address: mcgrady456@163.com
Int J Biol Macromol, 2025 Feb 06.
PMID: 39922348 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.140757

Abstract

A fish scale (FS) gelatin-fatty acid conjugate (GFC) with alkyl chain lengths of 8-18 was constructed to increase the aqueous solubility of curcumin. The effect of alkyl chain length on the interaction between GFC and curcumin was characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), fluorescence spectroscopy (FS), and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The surface hydrophobicity (from 4987 ± 223.79 to 9982 ± 262.78) and curcumin loading capacity (from 8.20 ± 0.54 to 31.18 ± 1.41 μg/mg) of the GFC exhibited significant enhancements through increasing alkyl chain lengths from 8 to 18. This was accompanied by a reduction in particle size (from 661.5 ± 28.9 to 329.7 ± 6.6 nm) and ζ-potential (from -2.7 ± 0.92 to -26.8 ± 0.27). FS and ITC confirmed that GOC shared an optimal binding constant (Ka, 2.40 × 108 L·mol-1 and 3.47 × 105 M-1) and binding site (n, 1.45 and 2.276) with curcumin among GFCs. Increasing GFC's alkyl chain length also boosted the stability of entrapped curcumin against the thermal environment and ultraviolet radiation. These results could be beneficial for gelatin-based nanocarrier development and application.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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