A cost-efective polyethylene glycol-based method for the isolation of functional edible nanoparticles from ginger rhizomes.

Edible nanoparticles (ENPs) are nano-sized vesicles derived from edible plants. These ENPs are loaded
with plant derived microRNAs, protein, lipids and phytochemicals. Recently, ginger derived ENPs was
shown to prevent infammatory bowel diseases and colon cancer, in vivo, highlighting their therapeutic
potential. Conventionally, diferential centrifugation with an ultra-centrifugation step is employed to
purify these ENPs which imposes limitation on the cost-efectiveness of their purifcation. Herein, we
developed polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG6000) based ginger ENP purifcation (PEG-ENPs) method,
which eliminates the need for expensive ultracentrifugation. Using diferent PEG6000 concentrations,
we could recover between 60% to 90% of ENPs compared to ultracentrifugation method. PEG-ENPs
exhibit near identical size and zeta potential similar to ultra-ENPs. The biochemical composition of PEGENPs, such as proteins, lipids, small RNAs and bioactive content is comparable to that of ultra-ENPs.
In addition, similar to ultra-ENPs, PEG-ENPs are efciently taken up by the murine macrophages and
protects cells from hydrogen peroxide induced oxidative stress. Since PEG has been approved as food
additive, the PEG method described here will provide a cost-efective alternative to purify ENPs, which
can be directly used as a dietary supplement in therapeutic formulations.