<i>Monascus</i> Red Pigment Liposomes: Microstructural Characteristics, Stability, and Anticancer Activity
Pengcheng Long,
Lisha Zhu,
Huafa Lai,
Suyin Xu,
Xingxing Dong,
Yanchun Shao,
Liling Wang,
Shuiyuan Cheng,
Gang Liu,
Jingren He,
Yi He
Affiliations
Pengcheng Long
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Lisha Zhu
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Huafa Lai
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Suyin Xu
Key Laboratory for Deep Processing of Major Grain and Oil, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory for Processing and Transformation of Agricultural Products, School of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Xingxing Dong
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Yanchun Shao
College of Food Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Liling Wang
College of Life Science, Tarim University, Alar 843300, China
Shuiyuan Cheng
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Gang Liu
Key Laboratory for Deep Processing of Major Grain and Oil, Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory for Processing and Transformation of Agricultural Products, School of Food Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Jingren He
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Yi He
National R&D Center for Se-Rich Agricultural Products Processing, Hubei Engineering Research Center for Deep Processing of Green Se-Rich Agricultural Products, School of Modern Industry for Selenium Science and Engineering, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China
Monascus red pigments (MRPs), which are a kind of natural colorant produced by Monascus spp., are widely used in the food and health supplements industry but are not very stable during processing and storage. Thus, MRPs were embedded into liposome membranes using a thin-film ultrasonic method to improve stability in this study. Monascus red pigments liposomes (MRPL) exhibited spherical unilamellar vesicles (UV) with particle size, polydispersity indexes (PDI), and zeta potential of 20–200 nm, 0.362 ± 0.023, and −42.37 ± 0.21 mV, respectively. pH, thermal, light, metal ion, storage, and in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion stability revealed that, compared with free MRPs, liposomes embedding significantly enhanced the stability of MRPs when exposed to adverse environmental conditions. Furthermore, anticancer assay suggested that MRPL exhibited a stronger inhibitory effect on MKN-28 cells by damaging the integrity of cells, with the IC50 value at 0.57 mg/mL. Overall, MRPLs possess stronger stability in external environment and in vitro simulated digestion with greater anticancer activity, indicating that MRPLs have the potential for promising application in the functional foods and pharmaceutical industries.