Elucidating Enhanced β-Cryptoxanthin Delivery via Chitosomes: Insights Into Release Kinetics, Stability Profiles, and Intestinal Oxidative Stress Inhibition

β-Cryptoxanthin (β-crx), a provitamin A carotenoid, plays a crucial role in alleviating oxidative stress, but due to physicochemical stress, the efficacy as a dietary component is hindered, which has been overcome by designing a β-crx-encapsulated chitosome (CH-LP). The CH-LP yielded a high loading efficiency of 98.77% ± 0.80% with a particle size of 230.67 ± 2.03 nm. Structural analysis through FESEM, FTIR, and XRD analysis confirmed the microencapsulation of β-crx within the CH-LP. CH-LP's mucoadhesive adsorption (83.45% ± 0.13%) suggested adherence of β-crx to mucosal surfaces, potentially prolonging gastrointestinal absorption. Thermodynamic and kinetic assessments suggested that the system had an activation energy of 4.31 kJ mol⁻¹ and a half-life of 116 days, with a degradation rate constant of 0.006 day⁻¹. It could be kept for storage at 4°C till 30 days. In vitro release studies revealed a sustained release of β-crx from CH-LP, fitting the Higuchi model for dissolution kinetics. An increase in antioxidant efficacy was observed (59.53% ± 0.40%) in the small intestine (p < 0.01). The TBARS value of 0.56 ± 0.08 mg L⁻¹ and protein carbonylation content (0.75 ± 0.26 nmol mg⁻¹) showed oxidative stress inhibition, indicating CH-LP's ability in oxidative stress management. CH-LP also showed antimicrobial activity against harmful bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC-96), Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC-3615), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC-741), and Enterococcus faecalis (MTCC-6845).