Tannic acid-crosslinked zein-lipase complex stabilized multichamber Pickering emulsion for efficient diacylglycerol production.

This study presents a food-grade, multi-chamber W/O/W high internal phase Pickering emulsion (HIPPE) system for interfacial catalysis, which stabilized by a zein nanoparticle (ZNP)-lipase complex crosslinked with tannic acid (TA). Experiments and molecular dynamics simulations confirmed that the cross-linking between TA, ZNPs, and lipase was predominantly mediated by hydrogen bonding, hydrophobic interactions, and π-π stacking. TA effectively modulated the zein-lipase interaction to form a stable, dispersed complex and substantially enhanced the thermal stability of the lipase. The multi-chambered W/O/W HIPPE was successfully applied to hydrolyze natural vegetable oils for producing DAG-enriched edible oils without external stirring during the reaction. Using only 0.3 wt% lipase with soybean oil at 40 °C, we produced a functional oil containing 43.3% DAG within 60 min. The system also demonstrated broad applicability to various oils, such as rapeseed oil and flaxseed oil. This system establishes a robust, sustainable platform for efficient green synthesis.