New Sensor to Measure the Microencapsulated Active Compounds Released in an Aqueous Liquid Media Based in Dielectric Properties in Radiofrequency Range.

Juan Angel Tomas-Egea,Ricardo J Colom,Pedro J Fito,Marta Castro-Giraldez

doi:10.3390/s21175781

Juan Angel Tomas-Egea, Ricardo J Colom + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s21175781

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Abstract

In recent years, the general and scientific interest in nutrition, digestion, and what role they play in our body has increased, and there is still much work to be carried out in the field of developing sensors and techniques that are capable of identifying and quantifying the chemical species involved in these processes. Iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder that mainly affects the health of children and women. Iron from the diet may be available as heme or organic iron, or as non-heme or inorganic iron. The absorption of non-heme iron requires its solubilization and reduction in the ferric state to ferrous that begins in the gastric acid environment, because iron in the ferric state is very poorly absorbable. There are chemical species with reducing capacity (antioxidants) that also have the ability to reduce iron, such as ascorbic acid. This paper aims to develop a sensor for measuring the release of encapsulated active compounds, in different media, based on dielectric properties measurement in the radio frequency range. An impedance sensor able to measure the release of microencapsulated active compounds was developed. The sensor was tested with calcium alginate beads encapsulating iron ions and ascorbic acid as active compounds. The prediction and measurement potential of this sensor was improved by developing a thermodynamic model that allows obtaining kinetic parameters that will allow suitable encapsulation design for subsequent release.

Highlights

Even though in recent years the general and scientific interest in nutrition, digestion, and what role they play in our body has increased, there is still much work to be carried out in the field of developing sensors and techniques that are capable of identifying and quantifying the chemical species involved in these processes
The aim of this paper is to develop a sensor for measuring the release of encapsulated active compounds, in different media, based on dielectric properties measurement in the radiofrequency range
Throughout the allow last decade, scientific community has where tried the to simula digestive processes, which the designthe of more efficient foods and drugs, design of sensors gains relevance, representing a technological and scientific challenge fordrugs, w digestive processes, which allow the design of more efficient foods and thedesign research community

Summary

Introduction

Even though in recent years the general and scientific interest in nutrition, digestion, and what role they play in our body has increased, there is still much work to be carried out in the field of developing sensors and techniques that are capable of identifying and quantifying the chemical species involved in these processes. It can be considered that iron deficiency is the most common and widespread nutritional disorder; it is a deficiency disease that mainly affects the health of children and women, mainly in developing countries, and in industrialized countries [13]. Heme iron is found mainly in meats (myoglobin) and blood (hemoglobin) and, on the other hand, the main sources of non-heme iron are of plant origin, milk and eggs, and it is found mostly in Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations

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