Xue Yunxin, Zhang Xuehong, Wang Zhilong
Engineering Research Center of Cell & Therapeutic Antibody, Ministry of Education, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan, Shanghai 200240, China.
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan, Shanghai 200240, China.
Food Res Int. 2025 Jan;199:115389. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2024.115389. Epub 2024 Nov 19.
The application of red Monascus pigments (RMPs) in food storage as well as food processing usually endures harsh environmental conditions. Here, we presented a new encapsulation strategy to improve the stability of RMPs. At first, we managed to realize the azaphilic substitution reaction between orange Monascus pigments (OMPs) and soy protein to produce water-soluble RMPs, i.e., soy protein chemically modified by OMPs. Then, the as-prepared RMPs as a kind of protein were directly utilized to fabricate microgels where microgel efficiency > 60 % (encapsulation of RMPs in microgels > 60 %) was achieved after optimization of Ca and RMP concentrations. The microgels with particle sizes < 10 μm dispersed very well in water. The stability of encapsulated RMPs in microgels under harsh environmental conditions, such as heating, acidic pH, and sunlight irradiation, had improved approximately 10-20 % compared with that of free RMPs under the same condition.
红曲色素（RMPs）在食品储存和食品加工中的应用通常会面临恶劣的环境条件。在此，我们提出了一种新的包封策略来提高RMPs的稳定性。首先，我们成功实现了橙色红曲色素（OMPs）与大豆蛋白之间的亲氮取代反应，以生产水溶性RMPs，即由OMPs化学修饰的大豆蛋白。然后，将所制备的作为一种蛋白质的RMPs直接用于制备微凝胶，在优化钙和RMP浓度后，微凝胶效率>60%（微凝胶中RMPs的包封率>60%）。粒径<10μm的微凝胶在水中分散得非常好。与相同条件下的游离RMPs相比，微凝胶中包封的RMPs在加热、酸性pH值和阳光照射等恶劣环境条件下的稳定性提高了约10%-20%。
