Development of a microencapsulated probiotic delivery system with whey, xanthan, and pectin

Abstract

Pediococcus pentosaceus is a lactic acid bacterium that has probiotic potential proven by studies. However, its viability can be affected by adverse conditions such as storage, heat stress, and even gastrointestinal passage. Thus, the aim of the present study was to microencapsulate and characterize microcapsules obtained by spray drying and produced only with whey powder (W) or whey powder combined with pectin (WP) or xanthan (WX) in the protection of P. pentosaceus P107. In the storage test at temperatures of - 20 °C and 4 °C, the most viable microcapsule was WP (whey powder and pectin), although WX (whey powder and xanthan) presented better stability at 25 °C. In addition, WX did not show stability to ensure probiotic potential (< 6 Log CFU mL^-1) for 110 days and the microcapsule W (whey powder) maintained probiotic viability at the three temperatures (- 20 °C, 4 °C, and 25 °C) for 180 days. In the exposition to simulated gastrointestinal juice, the WX microcapsule showed the best results in all tested conditions, presenting high cellular viability. For the thermal resistance test, WP microcapsule was shown to be efficient in the protection of P. pentosaceus P107 cells. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results showed that there was no chemical interaction between microcapsules of whey powder combined with xanthan or pectin. The three microcapsules produced were able to protect the cell viability of the microorganism, as well as the drying parameters were adequate for the microcapsules produced in this study.

Keywords: Pediococcus pentosaceus; Protection; Spray drying; Thermal resistance.

Fig. 1

SEM images of microcapsules of Pediococcus pentosaceus P107 obtained by spray drying whey powder W (a) 600 × and (b) 7000 × ; whey powder and xanthan WX (c) 600 × and (d) 7000 × ; and whey powder and pectin WP (e) 1000 × and (f) 5000 ×

Fig. 2

Pediococcus pentosaceus P107 microencapsulated viability up to 7 days storage at − 20 °C during exposure to the simulated gastrointestinal tract. a Gastric fluid pH 2.0; b gastric fluid pH 2.5; c gastric fluid pH 3.0, both at times of 30, 60, and 120 min; d intestinal fluid pH 8.0 with 0.5% with bile salts and without, both by 240 min. ^a–cMeans ± standard deviation with different superscript letters indicates a lower significant difference between the microcapsules for the same time and pH (p < 0.05). ^A–CMeans ± standard deviation with different superscript capital letters denotes significant differences between the same microcapsule in the different analysis times for the same pH (p < 0.05). W, whey powder microcapsule; WX, whey powder with xanthan microcapsule; WP, whey powder with pectin microcapsule

Fig. 3

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of microcapsules of Pediococcus pentosaceus P107 obtained by spray drying whey powder (W), whey powder and xanthan (WX), whey powder and pectin (WP), and P. pentosaceus P107 (cell free)