Enhancing nutraceutical bioavailability by controlling the composition and structure of gastrointestinal contents: Emulsion-based delivery and excipient systems

Abstract

The oral bioavailability of hydrophobic bioactives can be improved using food matrices that breakdown within the gastrointestinal tract to form colloidal structures capable of altering bioaccessibility, absorption, and/or transformation. Emulsions are particularly suitable for this purpose because their compositions, structures, and properties can be controlled, and they are already widely used in foods. The bioavailability of isolated bioactives can be improved by incorporatingthem within emulsion-based delivery systems (EDS), while the bioavailability of bioactives in whole foods can be improved by ingesting them with emulsion-based excipient systems (EES). This review discusses the design, fabrication, and utilization of EDS and EES.

Factors Affecting the Stability of Emulsions Stabilised by Biopolymers

“…Many food products such as butter (water-in-oil), margarine (oil-in-water), mayonnaise (O/W), salad dressings (O/W), vinaigrettes (O/W), homogenised milk (O/W), beverages (O/W) and ice cream (O/W) consist partly or fully of emulsions [25]. Emulsions can be further classified according to droplet size into three categories, namely, conventional emulsions (d > 200 nm), microemulsions (d < 100 nm) and nanoemulsions (d < 200 nm) [26,27].…”

Nanotechnology: A novel tool to enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients

“…According to Jafari and McClements (2017), the bioavailability of a nutrient is the fraction of ingested bioactive ingredient which is absorbed and consequently used for the essential physiological functions of the body. The bioavailability of bioactive compounds such as vitamins (A, D, and E), carotenoids, curcumin, conjugated linoleic acids, omega‐3 fatty acids, and coenzyme Q 10 reduces after oral ingestion (Zhang & McClements, 2016). It happens due to physiological and physiochemical factors such as bioavailability, absorption, and transformation (Figure 1).…”

Engineering oral delivery of hydrophobic bioactives in real-world scenarios

“…Using excipient emulsions. An alternative strategy to deliver bioactive compounds using delivery vehicles is using excipient lipidic emulsions to improve the bioaccesisbility of hydrophobic bioactive compounds when co-ingested with it [20]. In other words, an excipient nanoemulsion might not have any health benefits itself, but it promotes the biofunctionality of the bioactive compounds consumed with it and consequently is hypothesized to increase their oral bioavailability via enhancing bioaccessibility, retarding molecular transformation, or increasing uptake.…”

“…Attempts to design novel colloidal carriers for using bench-top experiments date back over three decades and continue to offer significant promise for further exploration. In particular, we recommend previous articles of importance that have reviewed literature in emulsion-based delivery vehicles and excipient emulsions [20][21][22] and also drug delivery-inspired approaches for designing effective delivery systems for food applications [23]. Nevertheless, the central importance of bioaccessibility and bioavailability of these encapsulated bioactive compounds have only recently been emphasized and relatively few studies are devoted to address the complexity of this topic.…”