Improvement of Antioxidant Activity and Physical Stability of Chocolate Beverage Using Colloidal Cinnamon Nanoparticles

Delivery of encapsulated bioactive compounds within food matrices to the digestive tract: recent trends and future perspectives

Encapsulation technologies have achieved encouraging results improving the stability, bioaccessibility and absorption of bioactive compounds post-consumption. There is a bulk of published research on the gastrointestinal behavior of encapsulated bioactive food materials alone using in vitro and in vivo digestion models, but an aspect often overlooked is the impact of the food structure, which is much more complex to unravel and still not well understood. This review focuses on discussing the recent findings in the application of encapsulated bioactive components in fabricated food matrices. Studies have suggested that the integration of encapsulated bioactive compounds has been proven to have an impact on the physicochemical characteristics of the finished product in addition to the protective effect of encapsulation on the fortified bioactive compound. These products containing bioactive compounds undergo further structural reorganization during digestion, impacting the release and emptying rates of fortified bioactive compounds. Thus, by manipulation of various food structures and matrices, the release and delivery of these bioactive compounds can be altered. This knowledge provides new opportunities for designing specialized foods for specific populations.

Characterization of withanolides and bacoside A-loaded proniosomes: effect on oxidative stress and survival under hypergravity in rodent model

OBJECTIVE

This work provides characterization of withanolides and bacoside A proniosomes, and evaluating their potency in rat model for combating oxidative stress-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) damage and their survival under hypergravity.

SIGNIFICANCE

The delivery system was aimed for sustained drug release in plasma and brain, which could improve their efficiency and provide a therapeutic approach to combat oxidative damage and restore BBB integrity.

METHODS

Proniosomes were prepared using withanolides extracted from the roots of W. somnifera and bacoside A derived from the leaf extract of B. monnieri by thin film hydration technique. In vitro release of withanolides and bacoside A from the proniosomes was studied. In vivo experiments were conducted in Wistar Albino rat model to evaluate the efficacy of drug-loaded proniosomes in improving the antioxidant activity in plasma and brain, restoring BBB integrity and combating hypergravity conditions.

RESULTS

The withanolides and bacoside A-loaded proniosomes showed slow and sustained release of just 62.0 ± 2.87 and 62.9 ± 3.41%, respectively, in 9 h period against the release of 98-99% for the extracts that served as control. Trials conducted in vivo revealed a significant (p < .05) increase in the activity of antioxidant enzymes in both plasma and brain. Also, minimal extravasation of Evans blue dye into the brain (15 ± 0.03 and 16 ± 0.03 ng/g in treated groups against 110 ± 0.01 ng/g in control) of the rats fed with drug-loaded proniosomes was indicative of minimal damage to BBB. Rats fed with drug-loaded proniosomes survived to the extent of 75-83.3% against simulated hypergravity as compared to the control group in which only 50% survived.

CONCLUSION

Proniosomes provided sustained release of drugs, which helped to protect BBB integrity, thereby combating hypergravity.

Plant extracts and essential oils in the dairy industry: A review

Plants have been used as food additives worldwide to enhance the sensory qualities of foods and extend their shelf life by reducing or eliminating foodborne pathogens. They also serve as therapeutic agents due to their beneficial effects on human health through their anti-cancerous, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune-modulatory properties. Plants can be added to food as a dry powder, grated material, paste, juice, or as an extract that can be produced by a variety of methods. Plant extracts and essential oils are concentrated sources of bioactive phytochemicals that can be added to food in small amounts in a variety of forms. These forms include liquid, semi-solid, or dry powder for easy and uniform diffusion. Encapsulation can protect bioactive compounds from temperature, moisture, oxidation, and light, as well as allow for controlling the release of the encapsulated ingredients. Nanoemulsions can enhance the bioactivity of active components. This review explains how plant extracts and essential oils are used in the dairy industry as antimicrobial materials, analyzing their impact on starter bacteria; as natural antioxidants to prevent the development of off-flavors and increase shelf life; and as technological auxiliaries, like milk-clotting enzymes, stabilizers, and flavoring agents. Therefore, plant extracts and essential oils are a better choice for the dairy industry than plants or their parts due to a wide range of applications, homogeneous dispersion, and ability to control the concentration of the bioactive ingredients and enhance their efficiency.

Formula Optimization and Physicochemical Characterization of Tempe Drink Powder

Tempe is chosen as the main ingredient of tempe drink powder (TDP) due to its protein digestibility, phytochemical compounds, as well as vitamins and minerals. Previous studies had been conducted to develop TDP formula. The commercial TDP formula showed that improvement of quality aspects needs to be done so the product has better physical and chemical characteristics. In order to optimize the TDP formula, the viscosity, water solubility index (WSI), water absorption index (WAI), sedimentation index (SI), proximate, antioxidant activity, isoflavone content, GABA content, and physicochemical properties were analyzed. The optimized formula was done using the mixture experiment optimization method with optimization d-optimal to obtain the best formula. The optimization result showed that the best formula proportion consisted of 70% (w/w) Tempe flour, 18.23% (w/w) maltodextrin and 1.77% (w/w) guar gum. The best formula was chosen due to having better chemical characteristics compared with the commercial TDP and commercial soy drink powder (SDP), with protein content of 42.61%, antioxidant activity of 58.36 mgAEAC/100g, daidzein and genistein isoflavones of each 48.18 and 140.06 mg/100g and GABA of 21.24 mg/g. Based on the physical characteristics, the optimum formula had a lower viscosity value (18.67 cP) and WAI (2.58g/g) as well as a higher SI value (10.18%) and WSI (9.70%) compared with the commercial TDP. The optimum TDP formula has fulfilled the quality requirements based on the Indonesian National Standard (SNI 7612:2011) regarding soy drink powder.

Recent advances in food applications of phenolic-loaded micro/nanodelivery systems

The current relevance of a healthy diet in well-being has led to a surging interest in designing novel functional food products enriched by biologically active molecules. As nature-inspired bioactive components, several lines of research have revealed the capability of polyphenolic compounds (phenolics) in the medical intervention of different ailments, i.e., tumors, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. Phenolics typically possess antioxidant and antibacterial properties and, due to their unique molecular structure, can offer superior platforms for designing functional products. They can protect food ingredients from oxidation and promote the physicochemical attributes of proteins and carbohydrate-based materials. Even though these properties contribute to the inherent benefits of bioactive phenolics as important functional ingredients in the food industry, the in vitro/in vivo instability, poor solubility, and low bioavailability are the main factors restricting their food/pharma applicability. Recent advances in the encapsulation realm are now offering efficient platforms to overcome these limitations. The application of encapsulation field may offer protection and controlled delivery of phenolics in food formulations. Here, we review recent advances in micro/nanoencapsulation of phenolics and highlight efficient carriers from this decade, which have been utilized successfully in food applications. Although further development of phenolic-containing formulations promises to design novel functional food formulations, and revolutionize the food industry, most of the strategies found in the scientific literature are not commercially applicable. Moreover, in vivo experiments are extremely crucial to corroborate the efficiency of such products.

Multiscale Shellac-Based Delivery Systems: From Macro- to Nanoscale

Delivery systems play a crucial role in enhancing the activity of active substances; however, they require complex processing techniques and raw material design to achieve the desired properties. In this regard, raw materials that can be easily processed for different delivery systems are garnering attention. Among these raw materials, shellac, which is the only pharmaceutically used resin of animal origin, has been widely used in the development of various delivery systems owing to its pH responsiveness, biocompatibility, and degradability. Notably, shellac performs better on encapsulating hydrophobic active substances than other natural polymers, such as polysaccharides and proteins. In addition, specially designed shellac-based delivery systems can also be used for the codelivery of hydrophilic and hydrophobic active substances. Shellac is most widely used for oral administration, as shellac-based delivery systems can form a compact structure through hydrophobic interaction, protecting transported active substances from the harsh environment of the stomach to achieve targeted delivery in the small intestine or colon. In this review, the advantages of shellac in delivery systems are discussed in detail. Multiscale shellac-based delivery systems from the macroscale to nanoscale are comprehensively introduced, including matrix tablets, films, enteric coatings, hydrogels, microcapsules, microparticles (beads/spheres), nanoparticles, and nanofibers. Furthermore, the hotspots, deficiencies, and future perspectives of shellac-based delivery system development are also analyzed. We hoped this review will increase the understanding of shellac-based delivery systems and inspire their further development.

Investigating the effect of different types of cocoa powder and stabilizers on suspension stability of cinnamon-cocoa drink

Sedimentation of particles in cocoa drink is a technological challenge for the food industry. This study investigates the effect of different stabilizers (alginate, xanthan gum or carrageenan) on the suspension stability of cinnamon-cocoa drink made from 2 types of cocoa powder (natural or alkalized). Rheological and microstructural properties determination was used to examine the stabilization effect mechanism. The cocoa powder characteristic was investigated to study the correlation between cocoa powder properties and suspension stability. The results showed that xanthan gum is the most effective stabilizer to prevent particle sedimentation of the cinnamon-cocoa drink. Xanthan gum formed a network entrapping the particles. It increased the viscosity from 2.47 to 70.44 mPa s at a shear rate of 10/s. The drink formulated with alkalized cocoa powder has a better stability than that formulated with natural cocoa powder. However, at the concentration of 0.1% (w/v), xanthan gum could prevent sedimentation regardless the type of cocoa powder. The addition of xanthan gum up to 0.1% (w/v) had no significant effect on pH and antioxidant properties of the cinnamon-chocolate drink with a minor change in the lightness (L*) parameter. As such, the value of L*, pH, phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the cinnamon-cocoa drinks remained stable at around 22.5 ± 0.9, 7.2 ± 0.1, 0.31 ± 0.5 mg epicatechin equivalent /ml and 0.44 ± 0.3 mg tannic acid equivalent /ml, respectively. This study can be useful for the food industry to define a novel strategy to produce "ready-to-drink" cocoa-based beverage with prolonged suspension stability.

Sensory and Physicochemical Properties and Stability of Folic Acid in a Pineapple Ready-to-Serve Beverage Fortified with Encapsulated Folic Acid

Fortification of food and beverages with folic acid is carried out frequently as a remedy to folic acid deficiency which causes serious health issues. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of incorporation of folic acid encapsulated alginate submicron particles in pineapple ready-to-serve (RTS) beverages. The encapsulation efficiency and loading capacity of the particles were 91.54 ± 0.45% and 1.02 ± 0.01%, respectively. The photostability and thermal stability studies of folic acid revealed that encapsulation poses a protective effect on folic acid and that dark and refrigerated conditions contribute to higher stability of folic acid. In this study, sensory evaluation of the RTS beverages was carried out through both ranking tests and acceptance tests using a five-point hedonic scale. The sensory panel showed the highest preference to pineapple RTS with incorporated encapsulated folic acid at a quantity of its recommended daily intake (400 µg/200 mL) before heat treatment. Shelf-life evaluations were carried out through measuring physicochemical properties, and pH, titratable acidity, and total soluble solids showed negligible or acceptable changes over two months. Folic acid degradation occurred due to heat treatment, but encapsulation in alginate submicron particles provided heat stability to folic acid. Thus, microencapsulated folic acid may be a successful carrier of folic acid which can be incorporated in beverages such as fortified pineapple RTS.

Drying methodology effect on the phenolic content, antioxidant activity of Myrtus communis L. leaves ethanol extracts and soybean oil oxidative stability

In this study, different drying methodologies (convective air, oven and microwave) of Myrtus communis L. (M. communis L.) leaves were conducted to investigate their effects on the levels of phenolic compounds, antioxidant capacity of ethanolic extracts (EEs) as well as the soybean oil oxidative stability. Drying methodology significantly influenced the extractability of phenolic compounds. Microwave drying led to an increase in the amounts of total phenols, flavonoids and proanthocyanidins followed by oven drying at 70 °C. Higher temperature of drying (100 and 120 °C) led to a significant reduction of their amounts (p < 0.05). An ultra-performance liquid chromatography method combined with high resolution mass spectroscopic detection was used to analyze the phenolic fraction of extracts. Higher amounts of the identified compounds were observed when leaves were heat treated. Furthermore, the evaluation of the antioxidant activity showed that the studied extracts possess in general high antioxidant capacities, significantly dependent on the employed drying methodology. The incorporation of the different extracts at 200 ppm in soybean oil showed that its oxidative stability was significantly improved. Extracts from leaves treated with microwave (EE_MW) and at 70 °C (EE_70) have better effect than BHT. The results of the present study suggest that microwave drying could be useful to enhance the extractability of phenolic compounds and the antioxidant capacity of M. communis L. leaf extract.

The application of polyphenols in food preservation

Polyphenols are a kind of complex secondary metabolites in nature, widely exist in the flowers, bark, roots, stems, leaves, and fruits of plants. Numerous studies have shown that plant-derived polyphenols have a variety of bioactivities due to their unique chemical structure, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, and prevention of chronic diseases, cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and neurodegeneration. With the gradual rise of natural product development, plant polyphenols have gradually become one of the research hotspots in the field of food science due to their wide distribution in the plants, and the diversity of physiological functions. Owing to the extraordinary antioxidant and antibacterial activity of polyphenols, plant-derived polyphenols offer an alternative to chemical additives used in the food industry, such as oil, seafood, meat, beverages, and food package materials. Based on this, this chapter provides an overview of the potential antioxidant and antibacterial mechanisms of plant polyphenols and their application in food preservation, it would be providing a reference for the future development of polyphenols in the food industry.

Phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of Cinnamomum burmannii Blume extracts and their potential application in white chocolate

This study aims at determining the potentials of cinnamon (Cinnamomun burmannii) extracts to improve the health-promoting properties of white chocolate. LC-HRMS analysis was employed to obtain information regarding the phytochemical content while the phosphomolybdenum, FRAP and DPPH assays were used to determine antioxidant activity of cinnamon extract. Furthermore, the cinnamon extract was loaded into nanoparticles before adding it to white chocolate. The results show that cinnamon extracts contained phenols up to 310 mg EE and possessed antioxidant activity up to 260 mg TAE per gram of dry extract depending on the extraction mode (i.e., traditional and ultrasonic-assisted method) and the solvent type. The cinnamon extract contained catechin, epicatechin, procyanidin B2, quercitrin, 3,4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde, protocatechuic acid and cinnamic acid at levels of 51, 53, 1396, 13, 1138, 228 and 934 µg/g of dry extract, respectively. The encapsulated cinnamon extract increased the phenolic content of white chocolate from 47.6 to 1060.6 µg EE/g.

Optimization of the formula and processing of a sweet potato leaf powder-based beverage

For the development of a sweet potato leaf powder (SPLP)-based beverage, we investigated the effects of blanching methods on SPLP quality (including color, nutritional and functional compositions and antioxidant activity), and the effects of particle size and stabilizers on suspension stability of final product. The total polyphenol and antioxidant activity of SPLP of uncut group were 1.69 and 1.91 times those of cut group, respectively, and the indices of nutritional quality of copper, manganese and vitamin E of uncut group were significantly greater than cut group. The ultrafine SPLP-produced lowest gravitational sedimentation ratio (49%), indicating it had greatest suspension stability. The optimized formula of SPLP-based beverage was as follows: ultrafine SPLP of uncut group was mixed with 2.5% (w/w, powder basis) xanthan gum, 1% calcium lactate, 2% ascorbic acid, 12% maltodextrin, 20% xylitol, and 0.9% apple essence. The final product had high nutritional value along with consumer-acceptable flavor and texture.

Antioxidant activity and quality attributes of white chocolate incorporated with Cinnamomum burmannii Blume essential oil

White chocolate is often considered as an unhealthy product with low phenolic content and antioxidant activity since it does not contain cocoa liquor. In this study, investigation on the phytochemical composition of cinnamon essential oil as well as its potential use to improve the antioxidant activity of white chocolate were carried out. The effect of the essential oil incorporation on the quality attributes of white chocolate was also examined. The results show that cinnamon essential oil was rich in cinnamaldehyde and exhibited antioxidant activity. The incorporation of cinnamon essential oil at a level of 0.1% (w/w) increased the antioxidant activity of the white chocolate more than twofold without significant effect on its hardness, melting properties and colour. However, a slight alteration on the flow behaviour of the white chocolate was observed. This study clearly shows that natural cinnamon essential oil could be an alternative to synthetic additives in foods to improve their antioxidant activity.