Temperature-dependent inulin nanoparticles synthesized by Lactobacillus reuteri 121 inulosucrase and complex formation with flavonoids

•Lactobacillus reuteri 121 inulosucrase synthesizes inulin nanoparticles (INNPs).•The INNPs yield depends on the concentration of both enzyme and sucrose substrate.•The temperature-controlled INNPs exhibits uniformity in size.•Encapsulation with INNPs increases fisetin/quercetin bioactivity and stability. Inulin nanoparticles (INNPs) are a biocompatible material which has a potential application for enhancing solubility and preventing degradation of compounds. In this work, we demonstrated that INNPs could be synthesized from sucrose using inulosucrase from Lactobacillus reuteri 121. Noticeably, dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis showed that the derived INNPs exhibited uniformity in size, which was easily controlled by the reaction temperature. The effect of enzyme and sucrose concentration, as well as reaction time, was explored. Moreover, the solubility of INNPs in various organic solvents was also investigated, and we found that the INNPs were freely regenerated in water even though they had precipitated by organic solvents. Essentially, we demonstrated that the derived INNPs could be applied for flavonoid encapsulation. The solubility and stability of quercetin and fisetin in the INNPs complexes was higher than those of free compounds. These results make the INNPs very promising for many applications.