Use of alginate fluid gel microparticles to modulate the release of hydrophobic actives

Fabio Smaniotto*, Ioanna Zafeiri, Valentina Prosapio, Fotis Spyropoulos

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
108 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The use of hydrocolloids-based microparticles in the field of bioactives microencapsulation is an area of great interest and research. However, their industrial scale production and their application in food products holds many technological challenges. The objective of this study was to investigate the microencapsulation of tryptophan, used as model active, into alginate microparticles obtained using the fluid gel route, as an easy industrial method for their production. Several alginate fluid gels, loaded with different amounts of tryptophan, were produced and characterized by particle size, rheological properties and encapsulation efficiency, then in vitro release kinetics using a dialysis approach were studied. Although the produced materials were unable to highlight a correlation between operating parameters and release kinetics, alginate fluid gels showed the ability to slow down the release of the drug compared to a water solution of tryptophan. Obtained microspheres showed very small sizes, which makes them suitable for the enrichment and delivery of actives in food products.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1219-1224
Number of pages6
JournalChemical Engineering Transactions
Volume74
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 May 2019

Keywords

  • Encapsulation
  • Fluid gel
  • Industrial process
  • Release kinetic
  • Rheological properties

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Chemical Engineering(all)

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