Anti-Oxidative and Antimicrobial Properties of Soluble Curcumin Encapsulated with Whey Protein Isolate via Freeze Drying

Lee, Wee Kee (2019) Anti-Oxidative and Antimicrobial Properties of Soluble Curcumin Encapsulated with Whey Protein Isolate via Freeze Drying. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Curcumin is a beneficial polyphenol that can be extracted from the rhizome of turmeric (Curcuma longa L.). In years, curcumin gained popularity in the biological and pharmacological field due to its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antimutagenic, anticoagulant, antifertility, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antifungal, antiprotozoal, antiviral, antifibrotic, antivenom, antiulcer, hypotensive and hypocholesteremic activities. However, the major limitation for curcumin to be applied in functional food or medicine is that it has a very low water solubility (~0.60ug/ml) and poor bioavailability. Therefore, in this research, the effect of encapsulation of curcumin with whey protein isolate via freeze drying on the solubility of curcumin is investigated. The objective of this research is to enhance the solubility of curcumin for at least 10-fold. In this research, the curcumin is extracted using ethanol, acetone and methanol for 2, 4 and 6 hours. Next, determination of the curcumin content of the extract is done by UV-Vis Spectrophotometric method and High Performance Liquid Chromatography method at 425 nm. The ethanol extracted curcumin at 6 hours were found to contain the highest which is 0.0229g/g of extract (p<0.5). The ethanol extracted curcumin was encapsulated using 3% (w/v) whey protein isolate as it had the highest encapsulation efficiency of 30.69%. While for the antioxidative effect of the encapsulated curcumin showed a 68.09% higher DPPH radical scavenging activity than the pure curcumin and the encapsulated curcumin showed a better antimicrobial effect as compared to the curcumin itself. Keywords: turmeric, curcumin, encapsulation, anti-oxidative, anti-microbial, solubility