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. 2021 Feb 25;11(3):575.
doi: 10.3390/nano11030575.

Room Temperature Nanoencapsulation of Bioactive Eicosapentaenoic Acid Rich Oil within Whey Protein Microparticles

Juan David Escobar-García  1 , Cristina Prieto  2 , Maria Pardo-Figuerez  1   2 , Jose M Lagaron  2
Affiliations

Room Temperature Nanoencapsulation of Bioactive Eicosapentaenoic Acid Rich Oil within Whey Protein Microparticles

Juan David Escobar-García et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

In this study, emulsion electrospraying assisted by pressurized gas (EAPG) has been performed for the first time to entrap ca. 760 nm droplets of the bioactive eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)-rich oil into whey protein concentrate (WPC) at room temperature. The submicron droplets of EPA oil were encapsulated within WPC spherical microparticles, with sizes around 5 µm. The EPA oil did not oxidize in the course of the encapsulation performed at 25 °C and in the presence of air, as corroborated by the peroxide value measurements. Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and oxygen consumption tests confirmed that the encapsulated EPA-rich oil showed increased oxidative stability in comparison with the free oil during an accelerated oxidation test under ultraviolet light. Moreover, the encapsulated EPA-rich oil showed increased thermal stability in comparison with the free oil, as measured by oxidative thermogravimetric analysis. The encapsulated EPA-rich oil showed a somewhat reduced organoleptic impact in contrast with the neat EPA oil using rehydrated powdered milk as a reference. Finally, the oxidative stability by thermogravimetric analysis and organoleptic impact of mixtures of EPA and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-loaded microparticles was also studied, suggesting an overall reduced organoleptic impact compared to pure EPA. The results here suggest that it is possible to encapsulate 80% polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)-enriched oils by emulsion EAPG technology at room temperature, which could be used to produce personalized nutraceuticals or pharmaceuticals alone or in combination with other microparticles encapsulating different PUFAs to obtain different targeted health and organoleptic benefits.

Keywords: EPA-rich oil; WPC microparticles; electrospraying; encapsulation; oxidative and thermal stability; personalized nutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflict of interest regarding this manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SEM micrographs: (A) whey protein concentrate (WPC) microparticles; (B) eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)-rich oil-loaded WPC capsules. Scale bar corresponds to 30 µm.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) TEM image of the EPA-rich oil-loaded WPC capsules. (B) Emulsion droplet size distribution obtained by laser diffraction analysis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Evolution of the peroxide value of non-encapsulated EPA-rich oil compared with the EPA-loaded WPC microparticles.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Evolution of the attenuated total reflection—Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) spectra during the accelerated oxidation test: (A) EPA-rich oil, (B) WPC and (C) WPC-EPA-rich oil microparticles.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Peak widening of the free EPA-rich oil and the encapsulated EPA-rich oil into WPC, obtained as the 1741 cm−1 broadband at half maximum, over UV-light exposure time.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of the averaged headspace oxygen volume depletion between the neat oil and EPA-loaded WPC microparticles.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Thermogravimetric analysis curves in the presence of oxygen of (A) EPA-rich oil, (B) EPA-loaded WPC microparticles, (C) docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich oil, (D) DHA-loaded WPC microparticles, (E) EPA–DHA oils mixture (50:50), (F) mixture of EPA-loaded WPC microparticles and DHA-loaded WPC microparticles in mass ratio 50:50.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Comparison of the organoleptic impact of reconstituted powder milk containing free oil and EPA-rich oil-loaded microcapsules for fresh samples (t = 0) and upon the completion of the accelerated oxidation test. Data were expressed as mean value ± standard deviation.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Comparison of the organoleptic impact of reconstituted powder milk containing EPA and DHA enriched free oil (50:50) and EPA and DHA-loaded microcapsules in ratio 50:50, for fresh samples (t = 0) and upon the completion of the accelerated oxidation test. Data were expressed as mean values ± standard deviation.
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