Elsevier

Powder Technology

Volume 362, 15 February 2020, Pages 409-415
Powder Technology

Influence of the prebiotics hi-maize, inulin and rice bran on the viability of pectin microparticles containing Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 obtained by internal gelation/emulsification

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.11.114Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Prebiotics provided higher protection for probiotic cells

  • Encapsulation with prebiotics provided greater protection in gastrointestinal stress tests

  • Prebiotics positively influenced the survival of the microorganism in storage.

Abstract

Microparticle size, encapsulation efficiency and probiotic viability for resistance to simulated gastrointestinal conditions and stability under different storage conditions for 120 days were studied. The size of the microparticles ranged from 24.4 μm (pectin treatment) to 462 μm (pectin + inulin treatment). The pectin + rice bran and pectin + inulin encapsulation matrices presented the highest encapsulation efficiency, 91.24% and 90.59%, respectively. All treatments provided greater protection to the microorganism after passage through the simulated gastrointestinal tract when compared to the free microorganism. Regarding the viability in different storage conditions, at 25 °C the probiotics remained viable in all treatments for 120 days. At the temperature of −18 °C, the pectin + hi-maize and pectin + rice bran treatments preserved the microorganism viable for 90 days. At 7 °C, the pectin + rice bran treatment remained viable during the 120 days of storage.

Introduction

When ingested in necessary quantities, probiotic microorganisms are characterized by their ability to beneficially affect the host organism [20], on the other hand, prebiotics are nondigestible food ingredients that benefit the host by selectively stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria [19].

Typical prebiotics are dietary fibres which generally consist of inulin, oligosaccharides and resistant starch (hi-maize) [6]. Recent studies have shown that rice bran is a prebiotic potential and contains beneficial substances such as polyphenols, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, food fibers, among others [10,25,46,50].

Once consumed, it is necessary for probiotics to survive the low pH and bile acids present in the intestine, as well as processing and storage conditions [7,42]. The combination of probiotic and prebiotic agents gives rise to a symbiotic product, which can improve the survival of probiotic bacteria in the upper gastrointestinal tract and increase its effect on the large intestine [3]. In combination to this, to improve the resistance of probiotic cells, there is the effective method called microencapsulation [4]. Microencapsulation is the process in which a core material is conditioned within a thin layer of coating material, and provides the protection of the encapsulated material against bacteriophage, harmful factors of the freeze drying steps, passage through the gastrointestinal tract and storage temperatures [11,14,48]. Prebiotics were successfully tested as co-components for microencapsulation and conferred beneficial effects on cell viability [16].

Studies show that the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus LA5 is a suitable strain for food application and has been studied for example in food matrices such as UF cheese [36] and fermented goat milk beverages [33]. In addition, there are already food studies containing the combination of probiotics and prebiotics from the microencapsulation methodology, such as juices [17], yogurt [27], however, few reports have focused on evaluating their interaction with the medium and the viability of probiotics during storage.

Among different existing microencapsulation methods, there is the emulsification/internal ionic gelation. In this technique, calcium is dispersed in the form of an insoluble salt in the encapsulating solution. This mixture is emulsified in an oil phase in order to obtain a water-in-oil type emulsion. The calcium present in the internal phase is released by acidification of the external oil phase causing gelation of the encapsulating material [41].

An important criterium for the production of the microparticles is the selection of an suitable encapsulating material. Pectin is a polysaccharide that can be used as an encapsulating material, and is classified as an excellent candidate for emerging prebiotic [23].

Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the addition of different prebiotics (inulin, hi-maize and rice bran) at 10% in 1% pectin microparticles containing Lactobacillus acidophilus LA5 and produced by the emulsification/ionic gelation technique, when exposed to the gastrointestinal tract simulation and storage at different temperatures (25 °C, 7 °C and −18 °C).

Section snippets

Materials

For encapsulation, pectin of low degree of methoxylation (CP Kelko, Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil), hi-maize (National Starch Food Innovation, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA), inulin (Metachem, Higienópolis, São Paulo, Brazil) and rice bran (Hnutri, Ipiranga, São Paulo, Brazil) were used. Sunflower oil (Salada, Poço Grande, Gaspar, Santa Catarina, Brazil). CaCO3 (Neon Comercial Ltda, São Paulo, Brazil), Tween 80, C2H4O2 and CaCl2.2H2O (Vetec Química Fina Ltda, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Inoculum

Lactobacillus

Characterization of the microparticles

According to Fig. 2, it is possible to observe that in general the treatments presented microparticles with spherical shape and smooth surface, as well a relatively uniform size.

In the internal gelation/emulsification technique, the particle size can be dimensioned by the concentration of the encapsulating agent, the stirring speed and the concentration of the emulsifier used, which can result in microparticles ranging from 2 mm to 25 μm [2,32]. In this study, the mean diameter of the

Conclusions

It was observed that both microparticles, with or without addition of prebiotics, prepared by emulsification/internal gelation, represent an efficient system for promoting the resistance of Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 during the simulation of passage through the gastrointestinal tract. All treatments were able to promote viability of the microorganism at 25 °C for 120 days. At −18 °C, the use of prebiotics positively affected the survival of the microencapsulated microorganisms, since the

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

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