Transporting Dietary Micronutrients by Polymeric Nanocarriers

Dietary micronutrients play an important role in human health and disease. However, the bioavailability of these bioactive materials is limited by insolubility in solution. In this book, we present the design and development of several delivery tools based on polymeric nanoparticles that are capable of transporting micronutrients, such as vitamin B (folic acid), vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid), antioxidants resveratrol, genistein, curcumin and tea catechin, epicatechin gallate and epigallocatechin gallate. The conjugation of these dietary micronutrients with polymeric nanocarriers such as chitosan and PAMAM nanoparticles leads to enhanced solubility, stability and bioavailability of these bioactive materials in solution. Micronutrient bindings to nanocarriers were via hydrophilic and hydrophobic contacts. The binding efficacies were from 30% to 60% for these dietary materials. Polymeric nanocarriers are capable of transporting these micronutrients in solution.