MICROENCAPSULATION OF FUCOXANTHIN FROM PADINA TETRASTOMATICA USING FOOD-GRADE WALL MATERIALS: ENHANCEMENT OF STORAGE STABILITY, GASTRIC RETENTION, AND PERMEATION
Objective: To enhance the physicochemical stability and gastric bioaccessibility of fucoxanthin via advanced microencapsulation strategy. Methods: Fucoxanthin (Fx) was microencapsulated with inulin (IN), gum acacia (GA), and maltodextrin (MD). The microencapsulated fucoxanthin was characterised by SEM and FT-IR, and further evaluated for encapsulation efficiency (EE), pancreatic lipase inhibition (PPL), in vitro gastric digestion and permeation, and storage stability. Results: The EE of MD-Fx, IN-Fx and GA-Fx was 97.54, 91.00 and 85.20%, respectively. MD-Fx and GA-Fx exhibited highest PPL inhibition (97.23 and 98.50%) compared to orlistat (93.24%). The in vitro gastric digestion and permeation study demonstrated IN-Fx to have the highest (3-fold) retention and (2-fold) permeation, as compared to control. Storage stability at 4 °C showed IN-Fx, MD-Fx and GA-Fx retaining 90.98, 90.85, and 90.87% concentration of fucoxanthin at day 63. Whereas, concentration of fucoxanthin at 28 °C for IN-Fx, GA-Fx and MD-Fx was found to be 76.73, 76.19 and 70.65%, respectively. Conclusion: These results demonstrate inulin to be a suitable wall material in aiding the absorption of fucoxanthin and improve its stability. Further in vivo studies may investigate the bioavailability of microencapsulated fucoxanthin in an animal model.