Oat fiber as a carrier for curcuminoids

Abstract

The curcuminoid-carrying potential of oat fiber was examined as a potential route to overcome the low aqueous solubility of curcuminoids. Aqueous dispersions of oat fiber were mixed with curcuminoids solubilized in ethanol to obtain curcuminoids-oat fiber (1% w/w) dispersions in aqueous ethanol (2% v/v). Centrifugation of the curcuminoids-oat fiber dispersions resulted in a supernatant (95.3% w/w: 0.11% w/w protein, 0.17% w/w β-glucan) and precipitate (4.74% w/w: 0.18% w/w protein, 0.11% w/w β-glucan) with the curcuminoids being almost equally partitioned into both fractions. Curcuminoids solubility in the supernatant was markedly greater than that in aqueous ethanol and water. The curcuminoids were in the amorphous state in the precipitated fraction and were more stable to degradation than the curcuminoids in the supernatant. These studies show the potential of oat fiber as a carrier for curcuminoids into functional foods.