Microencapsulation of probiotic ST-69 producing GABA using alginate supplemented with nanocrystalline starch.

Microencapsulation technology can be used to improve the probiotic viability under stress condition in the human gastrointestinal tract and during storage. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the protective effect of encapsulation materials on the survival of GABA-producing probiotics using alginate containing cassava starch nanocrystals under simulated gastrointestinal conditions and shelf storage. ST-69, GABA-producing probiotic strain, was isolated from kimchi and encapsulated using emulsion technique. The GABA activity, encapsulation efficiency, morphology, probiotic viability were evaluated. The encapsulation efficiency using emulsion technique was 89.72%. Probiotic encapsulated in alginate-nanocrystalline starch gel capsules showed high survival rate at 94.97% of probiotic cells under simulated gastrointestinal conditions and during long-life storage at 4 °C compared to free cells. Results showed that for improving the viability of probiotics against gastrointestinal and storage conditions, complex materials with nanocrystalline starch might be a better encapsulating matrix for the preparation of gel capsules.