Fabricating hydrophilic particles with oleic acid and bovine serum albumin to improve the dispersibility and bioaccessibility of fucoxanthin in water

Abstract Biomacromolecules and dietary lipids are known to efficiently improve the hydrophilicity and intestinal absorption, respectively, of carotenoids. In this work, to simultaneously promote the dispersibility and bioaccessibility of fucoxanthin (FUCO) in a hydrophilic environment, a water-soluble delivery carrier was constructed using oleic acid (OA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA), based on the method of pH-switchable molecular self-assembly. The hydrophilic OA–BSA particles were prepared under the optimized conditions (pH shifting from 11.0 to 7.0, BSA 2.0 mg/mL, and OA/BSA molar ratios 13:1 to 30:1), with the particle sizes ranging from 120.0 nm to 160.0 nm and the Zeta-potential ranging from –35.0 mV to –45.0 mV. The fabricated OA–BSA particles were subsequently employed to entrap FUCO in water. When the FUCO/BSA molar ratio was 10:1, the transparent aqueous dispersions of the FUCO–OA–BSA complexes, with particle sizes