Improvement of Stress Resistance of Microencapsulated Lactobacillus plantarum by Emulsion Electrospinning.

Probiotics have become increasingly recognized for their potential health-promoting properties; however, the viability of probiotics can be affected by storage and transportation processes as well as the stressful environment of the human digestive tract, preventing them from achieving effective concentration (10⁷ CFU/mL). In this regard, the embedding technology of probiotics provides an effective protection method. Dextran-based water in water (W/W) emulsion loaded with Lactobacillus plantarum was used as spinning solution to prepare Lactobacillus plantarum-loaded electrospun fibers. The structure of the W/W emulsion and the electrospun fibers was charactered. Lactobacillus plantarum were uniformly embedded in the internal phase of the W/W emulsion and the loading efficiency was 9.70 ± 0.40 log CFU/g. After 240 min digestion in the gastrointestinal tract, and temperature treatment in 65 °C and 72 °C, the loaded probiotics maintained high activity. Even after 5 days of storage in room temperature and 4 °C, the loaded probiotic activity levels remained high, with counts >8 log CFU/g. These results suggest that probiotics encapsulated by emulsion electrospinning could be potentially delivered in a novel food delivery system used in the future food industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]