Electrospun Food Polysaccharides Loaded with Bioactive Compounds: Fabrication, Release, and Applications

Abstract

Food polysaccharides are well acclaimed in the field of delivery systems due to their natural safety, biocompatibility with the human body, and capability of incorporating/releasing various bioactive compounds. Electrospinning, a straightforward atomization technique that has been attracting researchers worldwide, is also versatile for coupling food polysaccharides and bioactive compounds. In this review, several popular food polysaccharides including starch, cyclodextrin, chitosan, alginate, and hyaluronic acid are selected to discuss their basic characteristics, electrospinning conditions, bioactive compound release characteristics, and more. Data revealed that the selected polysaccharides are capable of releasing bioactive compounds from as rapidly as 5 s to as prolonged as 15 days. In addition, a series of frequently studied physical/chemical/biomedical applications utilizing electrospun food polysaccharides with bioactive compounds are also selected and discussed. These promising applications include but are not limited to active packaging with 4-log reduction against E. coli, L. innocua, and S. aureus; removal of 95% of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and volatile organic compounds (VOCs); heavy metal ion removal; increasing enzyme heat/pH stability; wound healing acceleration and enhanced blood coagulation, etc. The broad potentials of electrospun food polysaccharides loaded with bioactive compounds are demonstrated in this review.

Keywords: bioactive compounds; biodegradable polymers; controlled release; electrospun polysaccharide.

Figure 2

(a) Electrospun pure starch fibers under SEM; (b) electrospun starch–palmitic acid fibers. Reused with copyright permission from [29,36].

Figure 3

(a) Molecular structure and information of α, β, and γ-CD; (b) product appearances and corresponding SEM images of electrospun (i,1) HP-β-CD, (ii,2) curcumin/HP-β-CD, (iii,3) HP-γ-CD, and (iv,4) curcumin/HP-γ-CD. Reused with copyright permission from [38,57].

Figure 1

Typical electrospinning set–up to fabricate bioactive compound–loaded nanofibers, including a power source, an automatic syringe pump loaded with a polymer blend, and a grounded metal collector.

Figure 4

General appearances and SEM images of electrospun chitosan/PVA nanofiber films loaded with α-mangostin and stored at 25 °C with 40% relative humidity (RH) (a–c) or 45 °C with 75% RH (d–f) for 0, 3, and 6 months, respectively. Reused with copyright permission from [64].

Figure 5

General appearance (a) and SEM images (b–d) of electrospun alginate/CMC/PEO lidocaine nanofiber films with total polymer concentration at 5% (w/v), 7% (w/v), and 9% (w/v). Reused from [85] under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (accessed on 24 March 2023)).

Figure 6

SEM images of electrospun active-compound-loaded nanofibers based on pure HA (a) and PVA-blended HA (b). Electrospun pure HA tends to generate more randomly distributed fibers with some adhering pieces; electrospun-blended HA fibers can be more uniform and intact. Reused with copyright permission from [99] and from [97] under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (accessed on 4 May 2023)).

Figure 7

Strawberries stored at 21 °C and wrapped with (a) no wrapping (control); (b) commercial food wrap; and (c) electrospun PVA/cinnamon oil/β-CD nanofibers. Reused with copyright permission from [103].

Figure 8

SEM images of E. coli bacteria being filtered on the positively charged nylon/chitosan nanofibers. Reused from [119] under CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ (accessed on 3 April 2023)).

Figure 9

(a) Chitosan/PVA nanofibers. (b) Chitosan/PVA nanofibers after GA crosslinking and lysozyme immobilization. Reused with copyright permission from [123].

Figure 10

(a) SEM images of alginate/PCL nanofibers loading 0, 10, 30, 50 mM silver ions. (b) Blood clotting experiment showing the hemostasis efficacy of Ca²⁺ crosslinked alginate/PCL nanofibers. (c) Wound healing experiment displaying faster closure by alginate/PCL nanofibers. Reused with copyright permission from [87].