The Efficacy of Co-encapsulation with Herbal Extracts on Viability of Probiotic Bacteria During Storage in Fruit Juices

Encapsulation of probiotics in food samples has been proven as a novel technique for enhancing the viability and stability of encapsulated probiotics in unfavorable environmental conditions. However, investigations on the optimized compositions of encapsulation to enhance the viability of the probiotic bacteria in food and simulated gastrointestinal environment are intending to increase. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of alginate-chitosan encapsulation with herbal extracts including eucalyptus, ziziphora and thymus vulgaris l. on viability of probiotic bacteria suspended in fruit juices (orange, pomegranate, apple and raisin juices) during storage at 4°C.The strains of probiotics used in this work were Lactobacillus casei (PTCC 1608), Lactobacillus acidophilus (PTCC 1643) andBifidobacterium bifidum (PTCC 1644).Theresultsdisplayedthatthesurvivingpopulationof L. caseicellsentrapped with 0.05%(w/v) thymus extract were significantly higher than those encapsulated with eucalyptus and ziziphora extracts,after storage for 30 days.Accordingly,thislevelofthymus extract was selected to immobilize the cultures before inoculationin to fruit juices, in order to comparison with green tea extract. Upon storage, thymus and green tea extracts noticeably improved the stability of probiotic beads in all the products, as compared to the controls. Encapsulated L. casei and L. acidophilusshowed better survival than encapsulated B. bifidum.