Soybean peptide (SP) exhibited low intestinal absorption at oral administration due to its fragile structure under gastric digestion. Therefore, we have attempted to encapsulate peptide by cross-linkage interaction between positive charged chitosan (CS) or chitosan oligosaccharide (CSO) and negative charged peptide. The CS (or CSO) with SP nanoparticles were prepared by using ultrasonification technique. The objective of this study was to find the optimal processing method by changing concentration, pH, and homogenizing conditions. We measured physicochemical properties such as particle size, zeta-potential, encapsulation efficiency (EE%), release rate (RR) and antioxidant ability of samples. The results showed that the optimal processing method was using 0.5% (w/v) CSO (diluted by pH 3 Acetic acid buffer) mixed with 0.5% (w/v) SP (diluted by pH 6 buffer) by 9:1 ratio. Afterwards, using high-speed mixer at 12,000 rpm for 3 min, and then passed 2 times through an ultrasonicator (50% power, 3 min). In this way for processing, the particle sizes of CSO/SP nanoparticles were approximately 300 nm, zeta-potential were approximately 45 mV. In addition, the EE% and RR of CS/SP nanoparticles was higher than the CSO/SP nanoparticles. The increase in antioxidant ability of SP was attributed to the affected by CS/CSO microcapsules. In conclusion, this research can befoundation for the manufacturing process of CS/SP nanoparticles, and it was expected that the future application of this nanoparticle in food matrix.

The objective of this study was to evaluate size-different chitosan nanoparticles as a CO2 indicator. CO2 gas is dissolved to form H2CO3 which makes the solution acidic. Chitosan is acid soluble and its appearance (turbidity) changes depending on pH in aqueous solution. Two size-different chitosan nanoparticles were fabricated by ionic gelation between chitosan (0.30 and 0.50%, w/v) and 0.07% sodium tripolyphosphate (TPP) solution. The sizes of chitosan nanoparticles were 630.77 and 1194.87 nm, respectively. To investigate the effect of chitosan nanoparticles as CO2 indicator, the initial pH of chitosan nanoparticle suspension was adjusted to 8.0. Thereafter, 100% CO2 gas was injected into the chitosan nanoparticle suspension, and the changes of pH and absorbance (600 nm of absorption wavelength) of the suspension over time were measured for 28 min. Absorbance at the appearance transition and its corresponding time was calculated using logistic function (R2> 0.99).As a result, pH of chitosan nanoparticle suspension decreased rapidly under CO2 gas injection for 10 min and finally reached around 6.0. In addition, there was significant difference in appearance transition time which was6.62 and 12.45 min for small- and large-sized chitosan nanoparticle suspensions, respectively. This study suggests that chitosan nanoparticle suspension might be useful as a food quality indicator for CO2 emitting foods such as fermented foods.

Although there are a number of reports regarding the toxicity evaluation of inorganic nanoparticles, knowledge on biodegradable nanomaterials, which have always been considered safe, is still limited. For example, the toxicity of chitosan nanoparticles, one of the most widely used drug/gene delivery vehicles, is largely unknown. In this report, we examined the cytotoxic effects of chitosan nanoparticles on mouse embryos at the blastocyst stage and in vivo implantation by embryo transfer. Blastocysts treated with 250 nm chitosan nanoparticles exhibited significantly increased apoptosis and a corresponding decrease in total cell number, which was concentration‐dependent. Moreover, the TUNEL positive signal in the embryos exposed to chitosan nanoparticles showed an increased of the ICM and the implantation success rate was lower than that of their control counterparts. Our results collectively indicate that in vitro exposure to chitosan nanoparticles induces apoptosis and retards implantation development after transfer to host mice. The results collectively show that chitosan nanoparticles have the potential to induce embryo cytotoxicity. Further studies are required to establish effective protection strategies against the cytotoxic effects of these nanoparticles.