Abstract:
To construct an efficient and stable delivery carrier for dihydroquercetin (DHQ), DHQ/dual-protein complexes were prepared using soy protein isolate (SPI) and whey protein isolate (WPI) as matrices by adjusting the mass ratios of SPI to WPI at 100:0, 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, and 0:100. The physicochemical properties, structural characteristics, and antioxidant activities of the complexes were systematically investigated. The results showed that the blending ratio of SPI to WPI significantly regulated the properties of the complexes. When the mass ratio of SPI to WPI was 30:70, the particle size of the complex was 171.2 nm, the polydispersity index was 0.22, and the absolute value of zeta potential was higher than 30 mV, forming a stable colloidal system. Meanwhile, the encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of DHQ reached 96.06%±1.4% and 0.96%±0.01%, respectively. Structural characterization confirmed that DHQ could bind to the dual-protein via non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic interactions to form stable complexes. With the increase of WPI proportion, the
α-helix content in the complexes increased significantly, while the
β-sheet content decreased significantly. Antioxidant assays indicated that the radical scavenging activities of all complexes were significantly superior to those of pure DHQ and ascorbic acid, and the radical scavenging rate of complexes with SPI proportion ≥50% was higher than 80%. In this study, DHQ/dual-protein delivery carriers were successfully constructed by regulating the mass ratio of SPI to WPI. The complex with SPI:WPI at 30:70 exhibited the optimal physicochemical properties and encapsulation performance.