K.S. Yoha, J.A. Moses, C. Anandharamakrishnan
Abstract
Encapsulation of probiotic bacteria requires precise control over a range of process parameters, all of which are technique-specific. The technology of encapsulation has received considerable attention in recent years, owing to the numerous ranges of benefits it offers, particularly in terms of quality retention, storage stability, and targeted delivery. In this research, spray-drying (SD) and spray-freeze-drying (SFD) techniques were used to encapsulate Lactobacillus plantarum (NCIM 2083). Fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS), whey protein (WP) and maltodextrin (MD) were used as encapsulating agents at different formulations. Changes in physicochemical properties were evaluated. FOS:WP:MD (2:0.5:0.5) gave higher encapsulation efficiencies of around 89.21% and 96.16% for SD and SFD, respectively. Probiotic stability was studied under simulated in-vitro digestion conditions and over the storage period of 60 days. SFD synbiotics showed better survivability during digestion; whereas, storage studies indicated around 0.95 fold increased retention of cell viability in SD synbiotics as compared to SFD.
Keywords
Synbiotics, Drying, Encapsulation, Microbial stability, Cell viability