In vitro digestion and bioaccessibility studies of vitamin E-loaded nanohydroxyapatite Pickering emulsions and derived fortified foods

• Autor(a) principal: Ribeiro, Andreia
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Gonçalves, Raquel F.S., Pinheiro, Ana C., Manrique, Yaidelin A., Barreiro, M.F., Lopes, José Carlos B., Dias, Madalena M.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/24214
• topic: NETmix; Pickering emulsions; Lipophilic vitamin; In vitro digestion

Vitamin E is a lipophilic vitamin playing an essential role in human health. Due to oxidative instability, it presents fast degradation and bioactivity loss. In this study, vitamin E-loaded Pickering emulsions (PEs) stabilized by nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HAp) were produced using a static mixer (NETmix), a technique enabling continuous production and droplet size tailoring. Thus, oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions containing vitamin E at a content of 1 mg/mL were produced with different droplet sizes (7.53, 11.56 and 17.72 μm) using an O/W ratio of 20/80 (v/v). Their stability during in vitro gastrointestinal digestion and vitamin E bioaccessibility were investigated. It was observed that n-HAp particles disrupt in the stomach and subsequently aggregate as random calcium phosphates in the small intestine, leading to low vitamin E bioaccessibility due to oil entrapment. The emulsion showing the highest vitamin E bioaccessibility (3.29 ± 0.57%, sample with the larger average droplet size) was used to produce fortified gelatine and milk, resulting in an increased bioaccessibility (10.87 ± 1.04% and 18.07 ± 2.90%, respectively). This fact was associated with the presence of macronutrients and the lower n- HAp content. Overall, n-HAp PEs offer advantages for vitamin E encapsulation directed to fortified foods development, a process able to be extended to other lipophilic vitamins.