Nano-based Delivery System for Nutraceuticals: The Potential Future

Nutraceuticals are food products that have health and medical benefits, hence promoting their use in prevention and treatment of diseases. Recently, nutraceuticals have come to limelight because of current lifestyle trends which lead to improper nutrition thereby creating a need for food supplements. Due to improper systemic delivery and poor oral bioavailability, potential use of nutraceuticals is limited. Most of the nutraceuticals show difficulty in adsorption through intestinal epithelium due to the presence of bilayer lipid membrane. Other factors such as low solubility or stability of nutraceuticals under harsh gastric conditions limit their beneficial use in health industry. Nanoencapsulation of nutraceuticals can improve their bioavailability thereby increasing health benefits. Recently there has been extensive research on encapsulation of nutraceuticals into biodegradable nanocarriers so as to increase their absorption and hence the therapeutic potential. Various materials have been used for formation of protective shell of encapsulates. The material should be food-grade and biodegradable and must be able to protect the internal phase from its surroundings. Of all the materials of choice, most frequently used are polysaccharides. Proteins and lipids are also promising candidates for appropriate encapsulation. The potential of nanotechnology to overcome the various limitations with the nutraceuticals based on the recent developments in this area are being reported.