Development of Pickering emulsions stabilized by hybrid biopolymeric particles/nanoparticles for nutraceutical delivery

Bioactive compounds are functional molecules with a wide range of biological or pharmacological effects on human health, and their applications are limited to a small range of conditions due to their high sensitivity to degradation and low bioavailability. Pickering emulsion (PE), a unique system with more benefits than conventional emulsions, such as higher physicochemical stability, can be a suitable and affordable carrier to protect and deliver bioactive ingredients to the target site. These emulsion systems are stabilized only by nano/microscale solid particles locating at their interface. With the development of PEs in designing delivery systems and increasing attention to the efficient food-grade stabilizers, it is necessary to fabricate and apply natural particles such as hybrid biopolymeric particles, mainly due to their extraordinary ability to adsorb onto the interface and enhance the stability against environmental stresses. In recent years, a remarkable progress has been made towards fabrication of hybrid particles with unique interfacial and emulsifying properties. Protein/polysaccharide complexes or conjugates are examples of efficient hybrid biopolymeric particles. This study describes recent studies on PEs and advances made in the encapsulation of bioactive ingredients using these systems. It is assumed that bioactive ingredients encapsulated within the internal phase of PEs could be applied in a wide range of functional food products.