Nano-encapsulation & its Benefits
Nanoencapsulation is the process to capture a material within another. The molecule which is captured is known as Active Agent. The external material in which active agent is captured is known as Membrane/ Coating material.
Purpose of Encapsulation
The basic aim of encapsulation is to capture the active agents. That are mostly undissolved materials in the product like in beverages we have to add flavoring and coloring compounds but are mostly insoluble in water. Do we capture these in polar component allowing the colors and flavors to make bonds with water.
Benefits of Encapsulation
There are these benefits of encapsulation as:
- Improves the stability of the components by making emulsion.
- Sedimentation will not occour due to the size of particles is too small.
- As the size of particles decreases, there is no need for the stirring before use.
- Solids that are added in the beverages will have the very same or near to the dame of water dendity and sedimentation will not occour.
- The biggest and most wonderful benefit of nanoencapsulation is to mask the off taste components that have to be added in beverage or any other product. Mostly the functional ingredient of food have poor odor and taste. But needed to be used. So these are encapsulated with other ingredients and used. As these are masked with other components, there will be no flavor or taste of them in the drink. But the functional component goes to body and do its function.
Hope that everyone understands. resteem, upvote, comment talha96 for more....
Hi, thanks for the info. What materials are the membrane/ coatings made of for food additives?
The coating materials can be of many types like these can be cellulosic materials, or may be protein like soya protein, can be fatty materials. It depends on the active agent and the solution
good article, promoted on twitter. I do not know enough about this, to comment on the subject
You can read my past articles if you have interest
In the last few decades, developed a discipline that is quite popular ie Nanotechnology. The word nano comes from Greek meaning dwarf or small. Nanotechnology includes the design, characterization, production and application of a material, device or system at the nanoscale (0.1-100 nm). Basically, nano technology is not something entirely new technology, nature has introduced much longer technology that utilizes this 10-9 m size material. Consider, how can lizards crawl or climb walls for so long without falling over? How can the taro leaves not get wet despite contact with water? The mechanisms of the two events are examples of applications of nano technology in nature. Nanotechnology is able to transform a material into a new material that has unique properties (nano-ness) that is unique and different. So important is the technology for the future to the extent that the president of South Korea menyemboyankan "Go Nano or Die". In this article is not discussed further application of nanotechnology in general, but more focused on the field of food.
In the field of food, nano technology has received considerable attention. Some examples of such applications are nano-ingredient, nano-emulsion, nano-encapsulation, and nano-additive materials in dairy products, nutritional drinks, and packaging. In 2008, Friends of the Earth reported 104 food types, food additives, food contact materials (packaging, etc.) containing nanoparticles. At least, there are 4 benefits can be obtained from the use of nano technology in the field of food:
The antimicrobial activity of nanoparticles is related to several mechanisms. Nanoparticles can directly interact with microbial cells, for example interrupt transmembrane electron transfer, disrupt / penetrate cell membranes, or oxidation of cell components, or produce secondary products (eg reactive oxygen species (ROS) or dissolved heavy metal ions that cause damage (Li et al., 2008, Yousef and Danial, 2012.) In addition, the presence of NP-ZnO interactions with phosphorus groups in DNA causes inhibition of enzyme function in bacteria (Fanny and Silvia, 2012.) With these advantages, nanoparticles can be utilized for prolong the shelf life of types of food that can be easily damaged by microbial activity such as meat and processed products, minimally processed food, vegetables, etc. Good @talha96