Nanoscience and Nutrition Delivery System (NDS)

Lekh R. Juneja

Taiyo Kagaku Co. Ltd, Yokkaichi, Mie 510 0844, Japan

E-mail: juneja@yaiyokoguku.co.jp

ABSTRACT

Acquiring adequate nutrition intake through convenient means with no unpleasant taste and high bioavailability has been a difficult mission. The concept of “Nutrient Delivery System (NDS)” realized at Taiyo Kagaku Co. Ltd, Japan is to develop nutrients suitable for fortification by overcoming the problems in their taste, flavor, stability, solubility, safety and bioavailability. NDS technology enhances absorption of nutritional substances. The potential benefits of nanoscience on nutrition delivery system are summarized in this communication.

Safe and effective nutritional delivery system with high-performance health benefits is the basic requirement of the consumer. It would be so convenient if these nutrients were available in our daily diets. We have developed a “Nutrition Delivery System (NDS)” using　nano-particle formation technology to deliver minerals, vitamins, proteins and other nutrients in a certain place under a certain condition (Nambu et al.1998, Juneja 2003). We have developed various formulations under the registered trademark (SunActive™) using NDS technology to fortify foods with nutrients having merits of stability, taste, safety and bioavailability.

For example, iron deficiency is a critical public health problem and almost 73 % of the world’s population is iron deficient. However the difficulties associated in fortification of iron is that many iron compounds which exhibit the best bioavailability adversely affect food quality by accelerating lipid oxidation or by producing unfavorable colors, taste, flavors and toxicity. Compatible and non-reactive iron compounds are recommended for fortification of foods because it has less of an “iron taste” compared to soluble iron. However, due to its insolubility, precipitation of the iron prevents fortification in large amounts. We have prepared a nano-sized product (SunActive Fe™), which is a blend of ferric pyrophosphate and unique emulsifiers and processing aids (sakaguchi et al. 2004). The NDS technology disperses insoluble iron in liquid formulations and produces no precipitation. SunActive Fe™ masks disagreeable flavor of iron without affecting the flavor of the final product and is stable under the condition of heating and high salt concentration (Fidler et al. 2004). The particle size of SunActive Fe™ measured was found to show a sharp distribution size (average 300 nm), which are several folds smaller than ferric pyrophosphate (Fig. 1).

The safety of SunActive Fe™ nutritional supplement has been sufficiently characterized to ensure that it is a food grade product. Intensive product research and quality control has been performed and compiled by research facility at Taiyo Kagaku as well as the other independent clinical testing facilities. SunActive Fe is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) for its intended use as a nutrient supplement in foods.

Five groups of 10 weeks old SD male rats were orally administrated with various iron compounds (2 mg/ kg as iron per body weight); SunActive Fe™, ferric pyrophosphate, ferrous sulfate, and sodium ferrous citrate. Hemoglobin Regeneration Efficiency and Relative Biological Values were the highest with diets containing SunActive Fe™ as compared to other iron compounds (Sakaguchi et al. 2004). There was no statistically significant difference between the geometric mean iron absorption from ferrous sulfate and SunActive Fe™ fortified infant cereal (4.1 and 3.4%, respectively, p= 0.24) and yogurt drinks (4.2 and 3.9%, p=0.72) in human bioavailability studies (Fidler et al. 2004) .

Stability of SunActive Fe TM in solution was sufficiently high to ensure the clear solution without any precipitation. Also the stability of vitamin C was high with SunActive Fe TM compared to other insoluble iron compounds. Various Fe-fortified products such as fortified rice, milk, yogurt, and beverages including sports drinks have been launched in Japan, US, Europe and other markets. SunActive Fe is the recipient of many international awards.

SunActive Mg TM is an essential micronutrient mineral whose participation in several enzyme reactions and metabolic adjustment is well known. The average particle size of SunActive Mg prepared with NDS technology is nearly 350 nm. The bitter and chalky taste of Ca could also be masked using NDS technology to produce SunActive Ca TM, which was stable in acidic condition and with high bioavailability. The technology is suitable for nano-sized formulation of other minerals, vitamins, astaxanthin, COQ10 and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

We have worked on functionalized mesporous silicas, which are folded sheets (FSM) of silicon oxide arranged in the hexagonal symmetry with porous orders structures having nanometer controlled pore sizes.

References

Fidler, MC; Walczyk, T, Davidsson, L, Zeder, C, Sakaguchi, N, Juneja,LR and Hurrell, RF. 2004. British J. Nutr., 91(1), 107.

Nambu, H, Nakata, K, Sakaguchi, N, and Yamazaki, Y. 1998. Eur. Pat. 0870435A1.

Juneja, LR, Nakata, K, Sakaguchi, N, and Nanbu, H. 2003. INACG Symp.

Sakaguchi,N, Rao, TP, Nakata, K, Nanbu, H and Juneja, LR. 2004. Int. J. Vitam. Nutr. Res., 74 (1),