Encapsulation of Lactobacillus paracasei probiotic strain, survival in simulated gastrointestinal conditions and controlled release (Poster)

SÁNCHEZ, G.; QUIBERONI, A.; ANDRICH, O.; REINHEIMER, J.; SANTIAGO, L.

Wageningen, The Netherlands

Simposio; Delivery of functionality in complex food systems: Physically-inspired approaches from nanoscale to microscale. 3rd International Symposium; 2009

Graduate School VLAG (Voeding, Levensmiddelentechnologie, Agrobiotechnologie en Gezondheid), in co-operation with Department of Food Physics, Wageningen University

Probiotics have become increasingly popular during the last decade. Functional food formulation with probiotic should contain at least 106 live microorganisms per g or ml in order to produce therapeutic benefits. Their viability loss due to food environment, phage infections, and gastrointestinal barriers has become an important challenge. Either, coacervation between proteins and anionic polysaccharides and ionic gelation could become important tools to design microcapsule shell resistant to gastrointestinal barriers and also that release their activity in the target site. In this sense, the purpose of this work was to find the best condition to encapsulate a Lactobacillus paracasei probiotic strain by complex coacervation (between milk whey protein concentrate-WPC and sodium alginate-SA) and ionic gelation Lactobacillus paracasei was encapsulated following a factorial experimental design 22 with a replication. The factors were protein: polysaccharide ratio (Pr:Ps) (4:1 – 8:1) andCaCl2 concentration(Ca) (10 – 50mM).  Microorganism releasing assays in sodium phosphate buffer pH 7 during 4 h and also tolerance assays to simulated gastric (pH 3), bilis (0,3% wt)  and lysozyme (0,1 mg·ml-1) were done on each sample. Every counts of Lactobacillus paracasei were done in Agar MRS, incubated during 48 h at 37ºC. The responses were: final pH (pHf), volume of coacervate (VCo) and the following ratios: Ca++ in the coacervate/ initial Ca++ (CaCo/Cai), SA in the coacervate/initial SA (SACo/ASi) and Pr in the coacervate/initial Pr (PrCo/Pri). The factor Pr:Ps was significant (p<0.05) in all cases, while Ca and the interaction between both factors were significant only for pHf and CaCo/Cai. Other response was log UFC in the coacervate/initial Log UFC (UFC Co/UFCi), in this case both factors and their interaction were not significant (p>0.05). It was found that Pr:Ps ratio 4:1 promotes the releasing at pH 7 of the encapsulated m.o., compared to 8:1 ratio. On the other hand, the encapsulated microorganism at ratio 8:1, with 10mM CaCl2 shows higher resistance to the gastric-intestinal simulation assays than the Lactobacillus paracasei control culture without encapsulation. This experimental design let us find the best conditions to microencapsulate a Lactobacillus paracasei probiotic strain, resistant to gastric-intestinal conditions with a high potential use in food products formulation.