A tailored nanostructure design to protect camel casein-curcumin complex against the upper gastrointestinal tract hydrolysis using aggregated whey proteins in order to increase its antioxidant activity

Casein is an excellent carrier for curcumin, but it is susceptible to hydrolysis in gastrointestinal digestion. This study intended to design a tailored nano-carrier composed of camel casein/bovine whey protein to protect casein and curcumin during digestion. After loading curcumin to the casein, whey protein was added to solution followed by heating at 80°C for 10 min in order to form casein/whey protein aggregations. Binding of curcumin to the solution was assayed by fluorescence. The results showed that in the existence of aggregated whey proteins, stability of curcumin against gastrointestinal condition significantly improved. These results attributed to the protective effect of the aggregated whey proteins during the gastric digestion and denaturation in the accessibility of pepsin to the casein. It was demonstrated that this method might be a good design to combat susceptibility of casein without the use of any synthetic material.