Rabeah Mehravar - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
Mohsen Jahanshahi - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Institude,Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran
Ghasem D. Najafpour - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Nanotechnology Research Institude,Babol University of Technology, Babol, Iran
Naser Saghatoleslami - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

Protein nannoparticles fabrication as well as characterization have been extensively studied in our previous works as suitable carrier for drug delivery and food science, since they are biodegradable, non-toxicand non antigenic. The objective of the present study was to optimize the fabrication of -lactalbuminnanoparticle by applying the Taguchi robust method which is a statistical approach to overcome the limitation of the factorial and fractional factorial experiments. The process variables were pH, temprature and agitation speed. The optimal levels of the different factors for the nanoparticle production based on coacervation methodwere pH 2.5, temperature 50°C and 750 rpm for agitation speed. The nanoparticle size at the determinedcondition was less than 220 nm. The mechanistic of the optimum conditions for preparing -lactalbumin nanoparticles and their characterization as a drug delivery vehicles are strongly discussed

-lactalbumin % Nanoparticles % Drug carrier % Optimization % Taguchi method