Comparative evaluation of liposome and ergosterol-niosome systems for encapsulation of goat milk protein hydrolysates: Structural properties, in vitro digestive stability, and storage stability.

This study developed and compared liposome and niosome delivery systems to improve the stability and bioaccessibility of goat milk protein hydrolysates. The results showed that the niosome delivery system incorporating ergosterol exhibited superior encapsulation efficiency (96.5 ± 0.04%) and smaller average particle size (216 ± 4.0 nm) compared with the liposome system (p < 0.05). Atomic force microscope results showed that both delivery systems had blunt cone morphology. FTIR spectral analysis also confirmed the successful encapsulating of the enzyme hydrolysates within the delivery systems. Furthermore, the niosome delivery system significantly enhanced the stability of enzyme hydrolysates under simulated in vitro digestion conditions, leading to remarkably improved digestion retention rate and bioaccessibility. The encapsulated hydrolysates also showed greater stability than the control group under varying pH levels and storage temperatures. Under the conditions of 4 °C and pH 8, the encapsulation system can better maintain its structure, particle size and zeta potential stability. These findings suggested that ergosterol has the potential to serve as an effective cholesterol as a membrane stabilizer.