a b s t r a c tThe purpose of this study was to prepare and characterise water-soluble phytosterol nanodispersions for food formulation. The effects of several factors were examined: four different types of organic phases (hexane, isopropyl alcohol, ethanol and acetone), the organic to aqueous phase ratio and conventional homogenisation vs. high-pressure homogenisation. We demonstrated the feasibility of phytosterol nanodispersions production using an emulsification-evaporation technique. The results showed that hexane was able to produce the smallest particle size at a mean diameter of approximately 50 nm at monomodal distribution. Phytosterol nanodispersions prepared with a higher homogenisation pressure and a higher organic to aqueous phase ratio resulted in significantly larger phytosterol nanoparticles (P < 0.05). Phytosterol loss after high-pressure homogenisation ranged from 3% to 28%, and losses increased with increasing homogenisation pressure. Elimination of the organic phase by evaporation resulted in a phytosterol loss of 0.5-9%.

Rice bran oil (RBO) is not a popular oil worldwide, but its demand is increasing due to its popularity as a "healthy oil" in Asian countries, particularly in Japan, Korea, India, China, and Indonesia. RBO is an excellent cooking oil and salad oil due to its high smoke point and delicate flavor. It is unique among edible oils due to its rich source of commercially and nutritionally important phytoceuticals such as oryzanol, lecithin, squalene, phytosterols, polyphenols, tocopherols, tocotrienols, and many more. Many studies on humans and animals have shown that RBO is as effective as some other vegetable oils that are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids in lowering plasma cholesterol levels and lipoprotein profiles. In some cases, RBO was found to lower plasma cholesterol more effectively, and this effect can be attributed to the occurrence of these other specific components in RBO. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the phytonutrients from RBO that have shown promising disease-preventing and health-related benefits in experimental research studies.

The purpose of this study was to optimize the parameters involved in the production of water-soluble phytosterol microemulsions for use in the food industry. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to model and optimize four of the processing parameters, namely, the number of cycles of high-pressure homogenization (1-9 cycles), the pressure used for high-pressure homogenization (100-500 bar), the evaporation temperature (30-70 degrees C), and the concentration ratio of microemulsions (1-5). All responses-particle size (PS), polydispersity index (PDI), and percent ethanol residual (%ER)-were well fit by a reduced cubic model obtained by multiple regression after manual elimination. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) and absolute average deviation (AAD) value for PS, PDI, and %ER were 0.9628 and 0.5398%, 0.9953 and 0.7077%, and 0.9989 and 1.0457%, respectively. The optimized processing parameters were 4.88 (approximately 5) homogenization cycles, homogenization pressure of 400 bar, evaporation temperature of 44.5 degrees C, and concentration ratio of microemulsions of 2.34 cycles (approximately 2 cycles) of high-pressure homogenization. The corresponding responses for the optimized preparation condition were a minimal particle size of 328 nm, minimal polydispersity index of 0.159, and <0.1% of ethanol residual. The chi-square test verified the model, whereby the experimental values of PS, PDI, and %ER agreed with the predicted values at a 0.05 level of significance.

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