Preparation and characterization of phytosterol-loaded nanoparticles with sodium caseinate/dextran conjugates.

Sodium caseinate (SC)/dextran conjugates were prepared via Maillard reaction under controlled dry-heating conditions. Moreover, the nanoparticles of phytosterols (PS) encapsulated by SC or SC/dextran were produced using the emulsion evaporation method. The encapsulation efficiency (78.81 ± 5.22%) of PS in SC/dextran nanoparticles was higher than that (73.5 ± 2.78%) in SC nanoparticles. Compared with the compact and dense structure of SC nanoparticles, SC/dextran nanoparticles existed as relatively loose aggregates. The result of differential scanning calorimetry demonstrated that the encapsulation of PS greatly decreased its crystallinity. The released rates of PS from SC and SC/dextran nanoparticles under acidic gastric conditions were 8.59% and 4.73%, respectively. After 7 h of intestinal digestion, the released rate (52.19%) of PS from SC/dextran nanoparticles was significantly higher than that from SC (32.67%) nanoparticles. Therefore, SC/dextran conjugates prepared by the Maillard reaction are more suitable to be used as wall material for the nano-encapsulation of PS.