Full Length Research Paper

Production of biological nanoparticles from α-lactalbumin for drug delivery and food science application

R. Mehravar¹, M. Jahanshahi²* and N. Saghatoleslami¹

¹Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ferdowsi University, Mashhad, Iran.

²Nanobiotechnology Research Laboratory, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Babol University of Technology, Babol, P. O. Box 484, Iran.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: mjahan@yahoo.com or mmohse@nit.ac.ir. 

Tel.: +98-111-3220342. Fax: +98-111-3220342.

Accepted 13 April, 2009

   Abstract

In recent years, the concept of controlled release of encapsulated ingredients at the right place and the right time has become of more interest to the food and pharmaceutical industry. Whey proteins are valuable by-products from the cheese industry. The physicochemical properties of the whey proteins suggest that they may be suitable for novel food and drug delivery system. The objective of this study was to characterize the two step desolvation process of α-lactalbumin for preparation of its nanoparticles. Following the desolvation of the protein with acetone, the produced nanoparticles were stabilized and cross linked by addition of glutaraldehyde. Nanoparticle sample was subsequently purified by 3 cycle’s centrifugation (15000 ×g, 20 min). Three process parameters were examined to achieve a suitable size of nanoparticles including the pH value, temperature and desolvating agent type. In addition, fabricated nanoparticles were analyzed by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The smallest size of the nanoparticles achieved was 102 nm while the largest size was 454 nm.

Key words: α-lactalbumin, nanoparticles, food proteins, drug delivery, two-step desolvtion method.