Budu is a famous Malaysian fish sauce, usually used as seasoning and condiment in cooking. Budu is produced by mixing fish and salt at certain ratio followed by fermentation for six months in closed tanks. In this study, four commercial brands of Budu were analyzed for their chemical properties (pH, salt content and volatile compounds). The pH of Budu samples ranged from 4.50-4.92, while the salt (NaCl) content ranged between 11.80% and 22.50% (w/v). For tentative identification of volatile flavor compounds in Budu, two GC columns have been used, DB-WAX and HP-5MS. A total of 44 volatile compounds have been detected and 16 were common for both columns. 3-Methyl-1-butanol, 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal, dimethyl disulfide, 3-(methylthio)-propanal, 3-methylbutanoic acid and benzaldehye have been identified as the aroma-active compounds in Budu due to their lower threshold values.

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Controlled release beads were prepared by using the combination of alginate and gum Arabic through ionotropic gelation method. Bovine serum albumin was used as model protein for in vitro assessments. The effect of amount of sodium alginate and gum Arabic as the factor affecting protein encapsulation efficiency and protein release were optimized and analyzed by using RSM-FCCD. It was observed that protein encapsulation efficiency was increased and protein release was decreased with the increase of both of the amount of sodium alginate and gum Arabic, used as polymer blend. The optimized beads showed high encapsulation efficiency (87.5 ± 3.65%) with suitable protein release (100% protein release after almost 4 hrs). The swelling of beads were highly influenced by pH of dissolution medium. These beads were also characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM and TA for protein-excipients interaction, beads surface morphology and beads strength, respectively. These calcium alginate/gum Arabic beads have good potential to be used as delivery vehicle for protein drugs.

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Recently, a lot of strategies have been developed to enhance oral protein delivery. The combination of biodegradable polymer which is alginate-inulin as the material for hydrogel matrices was studied as a carrier of BSA which was used as a model protein. The effects of different formulations on the BSA release profile in physiological saline was investigated. Meanwhile, the compatibility of protein and polymer was characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy. High BSA encapsulation efficiency was found with the increase of inulin amount in the hydrogel matrices. The BSA release pattern showed that the minor released of BSA in simulated gastric fluid, SGF pH (1.2) throughout 2 hours’ incubation and after changing the solution into simulated intestinal fluid, SIF pH (7.4) the protein release started to increase gradually up to 100% within 90 minutes. Incorporation of inulin in the alginate beads also resulted in improved BSA release in physiological saline solution. In addition, swelling behavior revealed that highest swelling rate of hydrogel was in alkali solution indicating that alginate-inulin hydrogels were influenced by the pH of test medium. The FT-IR results show that encapsulating matrices are compatible with protein and can be used as drug carrier. Therefore, the alginate-inulin hydrogel showing a good efficiency in oral administration of protein drug.