Zhu An-Yu, Ji Hong-Fang, Shen Liang
School of Life Sciences, Ludong University, Yantai, People's Republic of China; Institute of Food and Drug Research for One Health, Ludong University, Yantai, People's Republic of China.
Institute of Food and Drug Research for One Health, Ludong University, Yantai, People's Republic of China; School of Food Engineering, Ludong University, Yantai, People's Republic of China.
Food Res Int. 2025 Oct;218:116949. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2025.116949. Epub 2025 Jun 24.
Probiotics are widely recognized for their extensive health benefits, but they are extremely vulnerable to environmental factors throughout processing, preservation, and digestion. Microencapsulation technology serves as an effective protective avenue for probiotics, by mitigating or preventing these detrimental environmental impacts. Functional sugars, like oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, recognized as prebiotics, can function as both wall materials for microcapsules that safeguard probiotics and agents that promote probiotic growth and activity. In recent years, the creation of synbiotic microcapsules has provided a promising method for improving the bioavailability of probiotics and functional sugars during processing, preservation, and the digestion phase in the gastrointestinal tract. This review discusses recent advancements in performance and biomedical efficacy of various synbiotic microcapsules using oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, encompassing a total of 45 studies focusing on a variety of probiotic strains, primarily including Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Bacillus, Streptococcus, etc. Among these, 14 investigations employed oligosaccharides, including fructooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, and isomaltooligosaccharides, and 18 studies used polysaccharides such as inulin, chitosan, resistant starch, pectin, kelp polysaccharides, and konjac glucomannan, and 2 studies also explored the microencapsulation effect of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. The employed synbiotic microgel manufacturing methods in these studies mainly include emulsification, extrusion, spray drying, freeze-drying, and complex coacervation. In addition, 11 studies explored the enhanced activities of synbiotic microcapsules against several disease conditions, mainly including gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic diseases, and other types of diseases. Overall, the development of synbiotic microcapsules constitutes a potent approach for enhancing the viability of probiotics throughout the production stages and digestive phases, thereby boosting their biological activities against diseases, and also possesses great applicative potential in functional foods.
益生菌因其广泛的健康益处而被广泛认可，但在整个加工、保存和消化过程中，它们极易受到环境因素的影响。微胶囊技术通过减轻或防止这些有害的环境影响，为益生菌提供了一种有效的保护途径。功能性糖，如被认为是益生元的低聚糖和多糖，既可以作为保护益生菌的微胶囊壁材，又可以作为促进益生菌生长和活性的因子。近年来，合生元微胶囊的制备为提高益生菌和功能性糖在加工、保存及胃肠道消化阶段的生物利用度提供了一种有前景的方法。本综述讨论了使用低聚糖和多糖的各种合生元微胶囊在性能和生物医学功效方面的最新进展，涵盖了总共45项针对多种益生菌菌株的研究，主要包括乳酸杆菌、双歧杆菌、芽孢杆菌、链球菌等。其中，14项研究使用了低聚糖，包括低聚果糖、低聚木糖、低聚半乳糖和异麦芽低聚糖，18项研究使用了多糖，如菊粉、壳聚糖、抗性淀粉、果胶、海带多糖和魔芋葡甘聚糖，还有2项研究探讨了低聚糖和多糖的微胶囊化效果。这些研究中采用的合生元微凝胶制造方法主要包括乳化、挤压、喷雾干燥、冷冻干燥和复凝聚。此外，11项研究探讨了合生元微胶囊对几种疾病状况的增强活性，主要包括胃肠道疾病、代谢疾病和其他类型的疾病。总体而言，合生元微胶囊的开发是一种有效的方法，可在整个生产阶段和消化阶段提高益生菌的活力，从而增强其对疾病的生物活性，并且在功能性食品中也具有巨大的应用潜力。
