YEAST BIOENCAPSULATION SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLED RELEASE AND PROTECTION OF BIOACTIVE MOLECULES
Bioencapsulation, bioactive compounds, probiotics, yeast
In recent years, consumer awareness of healthier lifestyles has increased demand for new food products enriched with functional ingredients such as oils, vitamins and antioxidants. However, the low aqueous solubility, physicochemical instability, low bioavailability and unpleasant taste of some bioactive ingredients limit their incorporation into foods. In this sense, encapsulation strategies in yeast-derived biocarriers proved to be viable alternatives to preserve the functionality of phytochemicals against adverse conditions found in the human gastrointestinal tract and promote their controlled release.
Despite this, the transfer of active molecules across the yeast envelope challenges industrial-scale production of biocapsules. Processes based on passive diffusion are widely discussed in the literature, as they are controlled by several factors, such as size and polarity of the target molecules, bioactive concentration, temperature, pH and processing time, which can impact the feasibility of the process. On the other hand, some authors have proposed a wide range of bioencapsulation protocols modulating yeast permeability, such as electroporation and chemical treatment, or through forced internalization by vacuum and high pressure spraying.
Our research group, in turn, has already investigated the osmoporation bioprocess for the incorporation of lipophilic compounds into yeast and probiotic cells to improve their physicochemical stability and bioaccessibility. Now, we want to evaluate the performance of sonoporation and chemical processing coupled with drying to provide bioactive hydrophobes in yeast, thus developing simple, direct and eco-friendly bioencapsulation strategies for food applications. The present work will also evaluate lyophilization and spray drying as final steps of the proposed bioencapsulation routes aiming at the construction of a complete bioprocess. Therefore, the results of this study will reveal the versatility of yeast bioencapsulation systems applied to lipophilic bioactive molecules, presenting new perspectives for the use of these bioprocesses to provide creative and innovative solutions for the food industry.