Preparation and characterization of astaxanthin-loaded microcapsules stabilized by lecithin-chitosan-alginate interfaces with layer-by-layer assembly method

Juan Huang; Shuo Zhang; Dongchen Liu; Xuan Feng; Qingding Wang; Shennan An; Mengting Xu; Lanling Chu

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131909

Preparation and characterization of astaxanthin-loaded microcapsules stabilized by lecithin-chitosan-alginate interfaces with layer-by-layer assembly method

Int J Biol Macromol. 2024 Apr 26;268(Pt 1):131909. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131909. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Juan Huang¹, Shuo Zhang², Dongchen Liu², Xuan Feng², Qingding Wang², Shennan An², Mengting Xu², Lanling Chu³

Affiliations

¹ School of Biology and Food Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu 215500, China; The East China Science and Technology Research Institute of Changshu Company Limited, Changshu 215500, China. Electronic address: juanhuang87@hotmail.com.
² School of Biology and Food Engineering, Changshu Institute of Technology, Changshu 215500, China.
³ Faculty of Food Science and Engineering, School of Light Industry and Food Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China.

PMID: 38679251
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2024.131909

Abstract

Astaxanthin is a kind of keto-carotenes with various health benefits. However, its solubility and chemical stability are poor, which leads to low bio-availability. Microcapsules have been reported to improve the solubility, chemical stability, and bio-availability of lipophilic bioactives. Freeze-dried astaxanthin-loaded microcapsules were prepared by layer-by-layer assembly of tertiary emulsions with maltodextrin as the filling matrix. Tertiary emulsions were fabricated by performing chitosan and sodium alginate electrostatic deposition onto soybean lecithin stabilized emulsions. 0.9 wt% of chitosan solution, 0.3 wt% of sodium alginate solution and 20 wt% of maltodextrin were optimized as the suitable concentrations. The prepared microcapsules were powders with irregular blocky structures. The astaxanthin loading was 0.56 ± 0.05 % and the encapsulation efficiency was >90 %. A slow release of astaxanthin could be observed in microcapsules promoted by the modulating of chitosan, alginate and maltodextrin. In vitro simulated digestion displayed that the microcapsules increased the bio-accessibility of astaxanthin to 69 ± 1 %. Chitosan, alginate and maltodextrin can control the digestion of microcapsules. The coating of chitosan and sodium alginate, and the filling of maltodextrin in microcapsules improved the chemical stability of astaxanthin. The constructed microcapsules were valuable to enrich scientific knowledge about improving the application of functional ingredients.

Keywords: In vitro release; In vitro simulated digestion; Tertiary emulsions.