Electrohydrodynamic processing for the production of zein-based microstructures and nanostructures

[EN] Recently, plant-derived proteins have increased in interest and use owing to a combination of interesting properties and industry-wide trends to replace animal-derived proteins. Electrohydrodynamic processing can be used to develop microstructures and nanostructures of plant proteins in a facile manner and, thus, increase their opportunities in the food, pharmaceutical, and biomedical industries. One of the most currently studied and promising plant proteins is zein. This review covers the most studied strategies to produce electrospun and electrosprayed zein-based structures. The most relevant properties, such as size, morphology, and surface area, are discussed as per the potential areas of interest, for instance, in the food, biomedical, and pharmaceutical industries. In addition, applications of other electrospun/electrosprayed plant-derived proteins are also presented, confirming the increasing interest of different industries in alternative proteins which can help promote sustainability. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of the UIDB/ 04469/2020 unit and by the I&D&I AgriFood XXI project, operation number NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000041, cofinanced by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) under the scope of NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte 2014/2020). This study was supported by the project cLabelþ (POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046080) cofinanced by Compete 2020, Lisbon 2020, Portugal 2020 and the European Union, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Pedro Silva is the recipient of a fellowship (SFRD/BD/130247/2017) supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, (FCT, Portugal). S. Torres-Giner acknowledges Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICI) for the funding received during his Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC2019-027784-I). Silva, PM.; Torres-Giner, S.; Vicente, AA.; Cerqueira, MA. (2021). Electrohydrodynamic processing for the production of zein-based microstructures and nanostructures. Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface Science. 56:1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cocis.2021.101504