Soft Lithography-Based Fabrication of Biopolymer Microparticles for Nutrient Microencapsulation

Abstract

Food can be used as a delivery vehicle for nutrients and other active compounds to promote health and prevent diseases. Encapsulation in microparticles provides the opportunity to enhance the stability of nutrients during processing and storage and could potentially improve their uptake by tissues in the gastrointestinal tract. This work describes the use of a simple soft lithography-based protocol for the fabrication of monodispersed polymeric microparticles with precise, non-spherical shapes. A variety of microparticles with different morphologies were fabricated using poly(lactic, glycolic) acid, polycaprolactone, the pH-sensitive polymer Eudragit®-S100, and pectin-alginate mixtures. Vitamin C and anthocyanins were used as model nutrients for encapsulation to enhance food nutritional value and appearance. The results illustrate the applicability of this high-throughput microfabrication method to obtain microparticles with precise control over size and shape using low processing temperatures to avoid damage of nutrients.