Fundamentals of Nanotechnology in Targeted Nutraceuticals Delivery

Abstract

The nutraceutical or 'bioceutical' functions as a medical treatment which contains active components that meet established nutritional standards and deliver health benefits and performance advantages and body functions improvements to human users. Nutraceuticals exist between bioactive substances and pharmaceutical products because they provide medical benefits while their harmful effects remain non-existent. The clinic usage of these materials becomes limited because their physical and chemical properties create multiple problems which include their low bioavailability and their environmental instability and their poor water solubility and their instability and their structural breakdown which occurs after they enter the body. The solution to all these issues requires nanotechnology which serves as an effective method to enhance both therapeutic performance and the absorption of nutraceuticals. Nano-scale carriers like liposomes nanoparticles nano-emulsions and nanogels improve the process of encapsulating nutraceuticals while also maintaining product stability and increasing product bioavailability and enabling better cellular absorption and creating specific delivery systems for nutraceuticals. The nanocarriers provide nutraceutical protection from severe processing conditions while they enhance product solubility and extended product circulation time and they deliver nutraceuticals to specific tissue or cell targets. The functionalization of nanocarriers through antibodies peptides aptamers and polysaccharides enables targeted delivery to specific cells or tissues while the stimulus-responsive nanocarriers offer controlled release through pH changes and enzyme activity and thermal effects. The stability and bioavailability of nutraceuticals receive improvements through the application of nanotechnologies. The full potential of nanotechnology for functional food and health applications remains unachievable because scientists need to address safety issues and obtain regulatory approvals while building public trust in the technology and developing methods for producing it at large scales. The use of nanotechnology-based delivery systems has shown that various nutraceuticals can achieve better therapeutic results. Curcumin nanoparticles exhibited superior anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties when compared to free curcumin while resveratrol nanoemulsions showed improved oxidative stability and antioxidant properties. Omega-3 fatty acids present as nanoliposomes exhibit reduced oxidation rates while delivering higher levels of bioactive substances. Probiotic bacteria achieve targeted delivery to the colon through alginate-chitosan nanogel encapsulation which also improves their survival rate. The development of large-scale processing technologies requires optimization to achieve cost-effective results which must maintain their reproducibility while being acceptable to consumers. Interdisciplinary collaboration between food technologists and pharmacologists and nanotechnologists and regulatory authorities needs to resolve all these issues.