Abstract
This study reports the development of a novel and simple formulation for probiotic delivery using chitosan-coated agar-gelatin gel particles. This methodology involves the production of agar-gelatin particles by thermally treating a mixture of agar and gelatin solutions at high temperatures (121 °C) and subsequently coating with chitosan. The particles were able to protect the probiotic strain Lactobacillus plantarum NCIMB 8826 during incubation for 2 h in simulated gastric fluid (pH 2), as no statistically significant loss (P > 0.05) in cell concentration was observed, and also resist dissolution in simulated intestinal fluid (pH 7.2). Interestingly, this protection is related to the fact that the intense thermal treatment affected the physicochemical properties of agars and resulted in the formation of a strong and tight polymer network, as indicated by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Using an in vitro faecal batch fermentation model simulating the conditions of the distal part of the large intestine (pH 6.7–6.9), it was demonstrated by quantitative real-time PCR that the majority of L. plantarum cells were released from the agar-gelatin particles within 30 to 48 h. Overall, this work led to the development of a novel methodology for the production of probiotic-containing particles, which is simpler compared with current encapsulation technologies and has a lot of potential to be used for the controlled release of probiotics and potentially other solid bioactives in the large intestine.Key Points• Chitosan gel particles is a simple and scalable method of probiotic encapsulation.• Autoclaving agar-gelatin particles increases their stability at low pH.• Chitosan gel particles protected L. plantarum during gastrointestinal conditions.• Probiotics could be controlled release in the colon using chitosan gel particles.
Highlights
Agar is a polysaccharide extracted from red seaweeds belonging to the genera of Gelidium spp. and Gracilaria spp. and consists of agarose (1-4)-linked 3,6-anhydro-a-L-galactoseElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.alternating with (1-3)-linked ß-D-galactose (Saxena et al 2011)
The gel particles (~ 6 mm) did not dissolve in Simulated gastric fluid (SGF) after 120 min, and based on the fact that with a higher agar concentration the particles had a more consistent spherical shape (Supplementary Fig. S1), 3% agar and 4% gelatin solution were selected for subsequent experiments, as this would most likely facilitate better coating with chitosan and enhance the stability of the probiotic
In order to evaluate the effect of autoclaving on the stability of the agar-gelatin particles in SGF, gel particles (~ 6 mm) were produced by mixing 3% agar and 4% gelatin solutions without autoclaving the mixture in this case
Summary
I.e. it gels at 32–39 °C and melts at 85–95 °C, and has been used for preparing films either on its own (López de Lacey et al 2014) or in combination with other materials such as milk protein (Letendre et al 2002), shellac (Phan The et al 2008), soy protein (Tian et al 2011), and starch (Wu et al 2009) Such films can have a variety of applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic and personal care sectors. Gelatin is widely used as a material for making hard and soft pharmaceutical capsules (Gullapalli and Mazzitelli 2017)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call