N,N,N-trimethyl chitosan nanoparticles as a vitamin carrier system

There is considerable interest in incorporating stabilized vitamins into biopolymeric nanoparticles, especially in the development of carriers and active systems for pharmaceutical and food applications. Amongst biopolymer, chitosan is highly desirable owing to its good biocompatibility, biodegradability and ability to be chemically modified. In this paper, nanoparticles from three kinds of water-soluble derivative chitosan (N,N,N-trimethyl chitosan, TMC) have successfully been synthesized by ionic gelation with tripolyphosphate (TPP) anions. Combinations of concentrations of TMC and TPP have resulted in nanoparticles with varying sizes for which the capability for loading with vitamins was investigated. Zeta potential measurement and particle size analysis demonstrated that the size of the nanoparticles was optimized (196 ± 8 nm) when the lowest TMC and TPP amounts were used, i.e., 0.86 mg mL⁻¹ and 0.114 mg mL⁻¹ respectively. As the TMC and/or the TPP concentrations increase, the resulting size of the nanoparticles increases considerably. Three different vitamins (B9, B12 and C) were tested as additives and the final system characterized in relation to size, morphology, spectroscopic and zeta potential properties. In general, the incorporation of vitamins increased all the TMC–TPP original nanoparticle sizes, reaching a maximum diameter of 534 ± 20 nm when loaded with vitamin C. The presence of vitamins also decreases the zeta potential, with one exception observed when using vitamin C. The preliminary results of this study suggested that all TMC/TPP nanoparticles can be successfully used as a stable medium to incorporate and transport vitamins, with potential applications in foodstuffs.