Probiotics are beneficial to the organism health of livestock and aquaculture animals, but probiotics are very sensitive to the unfavorable external environment, oxygen temperature, humidity, etc. have a great impact on the survival of probiotics, which can lead to a significant reduction in the number of live bacteria during production, transportation, and marketing. In addition, most of the probiotics can not withstand the destruction of gastric acid, bile salts, and various digestive enzymes after entering the digestive tract, so it is difficult to maintain enough live bacteria to reach the intestinal tract to colonize and thus play a role. Lifeasible uses coating materials and microencapsulation technology to improve the stability of probiotics, thus enabling them to better perform their probiotic functions.
We use natural or synthetic polymeric materials as capsule materials and chemically, physically, or physiochemically wrap the active substance, the capsule core, to form microcapsules with semi-permeable or sealed capsule membranes. The particle size of probiotic microcapsules is usually 5-400 μm, and the thickness of the capsule wall is 0.2-10 μm. Microencapsulation of probiotics can isolate them from the external environment to a certain extent and improve their tolerance to unfavorable environments. In addition, we also confer the ability to localize and slowly release probiotics in the intestine of animals after microencapsulation by selecting wall materials with special properties.
Microencapsulation coating technology
We coat the surface of probiotics after microencapsulation to reduce the exposure of probiotics to high oxygen and high pH environments. Coatings such as chitosan are also able to impart some special functions to the microcapsules.
- Layer-by-layer assembly (LBL)
LBL is accomplished by immersing a positively charged planar solid substrate into a polyelectrolyte solution containing anions. the technical principle of LBL is mainly based on hydrogen bonding and electrostatic interactions between polymeric materials.
We disperse the microcapsules in one or more (mono- or multi-coacervation) incompatible polymer solutions (coacervation phase) and deposit the polymer on the surface of the microcapsules by adjusting the reaction conditions such as pH, temperature or adding chemical or enzymatic cross-linking agents to reduce the solubility of the polymer, resulting in phase separation of the system. Subsequent curing occurs, and then microcapsules are obtained using separation methods such as centrifugation or filtration to achieve surface coating of microcapsules.
Materials
- Sodium alginate
- Polysaccharide
- L- lysine
- Whey protein
Probiotic microcapsules
Our developed probiotic microcapsules include a centrally located nucleus protection layer with probiotic bacteria and an enteric coating layer, which also includes a coating barrier layer that at least partially encapsulates the nucleus protection layer. The ingredients of the coating barrier layer include pectin and xanthan gum, and the ingredients of the nucleus protection layer for embedding said probiotic bacteria include whey protein and carrageenan. Our probiotic microcapsules can significantly increase the live bacterial content of probiotics, while also allowing most of the probiotics to be released in the intestinal tract of animals, thus exerting beneficial effects.
Multi-layer bacteriophage coating
We add seven layers of protective film for the probiotics so that the probiotics can experience the multi-layer test of digestive enzymes, gastric acid, and bile after entering the animal's intestine. The multi-layer coated probiotics are acid and alkaline-resistant, which can resist the erosion of stomach acid and bile, fully ensure the activity, enter into the animal intestine smoothly to survive and reproduce, can regulate the animal intestinal environment, and play a positive role in animal health.
In addition to monolayer coating technology, Lifeasible has also developed a multilayer coating technology platform. The biocompatibility, safety, and efficacy of the preparation and coating materials are all taken into consideration. Please feel free to contact us to develop new coating technologies and materials together, so that probiotics can be better used in the field of agriculture and livestock.
For research use only, not intended for any clinical use.
