Israeli scientists have created nanocapsules based on natural food materials and loaded them with hydrophobic vitamins and other nutraceuticals (health-promoting micronutrients). The nanocapsules can be added to drinks as a health benefit without making them cloudy and they protect the sensitive nutraceuticals from degradation, which have been problems in the past.
Yoav Livney and his team from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, used the Maillard reaction to create protein-saccharide conjugate nanocapsules. This natural reaction, which causes the typical browning of food during baking and cooking, has been used to make similar conjugates to encapsulate hydrophobic nutrients, but the resulting capsules were large and turned liquids cloudy.
Vitamin D and epigallocatechin gallate (an antioxidant found in green tea) were loaded into nanocapsules to be added to drinks to deliver health benefits
Read the full story in Chemistry World
Link to journal article
Maillard-conjugate based core–shell co-assemblies for nanoencapsulation of hydrophobic nutraceuticals in clear beverages
Gilad Markman and Yoav D. Livney
Food Funct., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1FO10220F
