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Randy Adjonu

PhD Student
School School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences
Location Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga
Phone 02 6933 3208
Fax
Email raadjonu@csu.edu.au

 

Project

Peptides as Dual-Functional Ingredients in Food Nanoemulsions

Summary

Most food emulsion systems are designed to be sources of energy and nutrients for a very wide range of consumers and patients. These range from health/specialised products like infant formula and enteral/parenteral formulations to commodity products such as coffee creamers and salad dressings. In the case of health products, one of the major requirements is the incorporation of easily digestible/absorbable components such as peptides with oil, which serves as a source of energy. Milk protein hydrolysates have often been used in these systems.

  One of the drawbacks to the incorporation of protein hydrolysates in an emulsion system is the inability of extensively hydrolysed fractions to stabilise the system due to reduced amphiphilic properties. Significantly, these hydrolysates often do not have enough hydrophobic segments necessary to stabilise large areas of individual droplets which are created during the formation of micro-emulsions, leading to poor emulsification and destabilisation. However, nanoemulsions typically comprise droplets with about 100 nm average diameter. Furthermore, it is probable that these nano-particles will be better absorbed within the intestinal mucosa than their micro-sized counterparts.

Objectives of this study are:

  1. Elucidate the factors that control the formation and stability of oil/water nanoemulsions containing bioactive peptides, including homogenisation conditions, properties of the aqueous phase, nature of surfactants (Peptides) and the amount of incorporated oil.
  2. Characterise the properties of the nanoemulsions thus formed, including average size, size distribution, turbidity, surface characteristics and stability and
  3. Evaluate the in vitro health functionality of bioactive peptides when incorporated in nanoemulsions (in comparison to aqueous solution/dispersions) and elucidate the mechanism of any modifications to their bioactivity as necessary.

Supervisors

Dr Greg Doran and Dr Peter Torley

Funding source

  1. The International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS)
  2. Charles Sturt University Postgraduate Research Stipend (CSUPRS)