Co-delivery of curcumin and piperine in zein-carrageenan core-shell nanoparticles: Formation, structure, stability and in vitro gastrointestinal digestion

Core-shell biopolymer nanoparticles were fabricated using a hydrophobic protein (zein) as the core and a hydrophilic anionic polysaccharide (ι-carrageenan) as the shell. The outer layer was physically cross-linked using cationic calcium ions to form salt bridges between the anionic carrageenan molecules. The potential of using these core-shell nanoparticles to co-deliver two important nutraceuticals (curcumin and piperine) was also investigated....