Nano-phytosome as a potential food-grade delivery system

Abstract

Flavonoids have many nutritional-therapeutic and preservative features. Therefore, the aim of using them for fortifying food products could provide new horizon in developing new functional foods. However, there are several problems associated with the use of these phyto-active constituents in foods and food beverages. Nano-phytosome is one of the newest lipid based nano-carrier and fast growing attractive way of delivering botanical based nutraceuticals. Although the nano-phytosome technology has been developed for pharmaceutical applications, it could be potentially used in food products for designing novel functional foods and beverages. The current review represents physicochemical properties and potential applications of nano-phytosome as a carrier of food bioactive compounds in development of functional foods. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.