Application of whey protein-alginate particles coated by black seed oil as a biocompatible carrier of quercetin at treating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

[Display omitted] •Whey protein and black seed oil used as a biocompatible matrix to synthesize a new drug delivery system.•Porous nature of the synthesized delivery system increased quercetin sustainability and slowed its release.•The synthesized delivery system showed beneficial effect on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease treatment. Despite the application of whey protein isolate (WPI) in the functional foods and pharmaceutical industry, its usage is limiteddue to the highly likelihood of coagulation. Herein, we improved the WPI properties by using the alginate, as the inner phase, and the black seed oil, as the oil phase for quercetin encapsulation to the human-like model of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) treatment. The whey-alginate microparticles were prepared with high thermo-static and swelling-rate properties containing quercetin as the amorphous form. The porous nature of the synthesized protein-gel increased quercetin sustainability and slowed its release. In conclusion, the synthesized whey-alginate microparticles containing quercetin improved the NAFLD both in the terms of biochemical and histopathological properties. The findings demonstrate that this delivery system is applicable in pharmaceutical sciences that are recommended to be studied at the other diet-related chronic disease.