5th International Conference on Food Digestion[Excerpt] Introduction: Curcumin, a natural polyphenolic phytochemical, is known for its wide range of biological activities, however it has an extremely low water solubility as well as a low bioavailability, which limit its application as a bioactive ingredient in food. The use of delivery systems at nanoscale such as nanoemulsions (NE) and solid lipid nanoparticles (SLN) has been reported as a promising mean of improving the lipophilic bioactive compounds’ bioavailability and their physical and chemical stability. However, the knowledge of the behaviour of different nanoformulations as well as the fate of bioactive compounds encapsulated within them in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract is of utmost importance to either assess their safety for human consumption and to produce tailored delivery systems (i.e. with optimized bioactivity). The aim of this work was the evaluation of the behaviour of two different bio-based nanoformulations (NE and SLN) incorporating curcumin when submitted to an in vitro digestion and the assessment of their cytotoxicity. [...]Ana C. Pinheiro and Joana T. Martins acknowledge the Foundation for Science and Technology
(FCT) for their fellowships (SFRH/BPD/101181/2014 and SFRH/BPD/89992/2012). This work was
supported by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the
Project PTDC/AGR-TEC/5215/2014, of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and
COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684) and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-
FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of
Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
