alginate-based hydrogel particles as a gastrointestinal-resistant carrier for probiotic bacteria

Potential effects of probiotics on the treatment of several human diseases by modulating the gut microbiota have been discovered# however, the number of viable cells reach the intestine is a great concern# the present study investigates various alginate-based hydrogel biocomposites to immobilize l# plantarum bacteria# this involves chitosan, pectin and gelatin as the coating biopolymers to achieve higher survivability of the cells# survivability of probiotics were evaluated under simulated gastrointestinal (sgi) conditions with different formulations# coated alginate hydrogels showed significant (p<0#05) better protection of cells compared to non-coated hydrogel when exposed to sgi conditions# the results also demonstrated better protection of chitosan compared to gelatin and pectin# the structural and physicochemical properties of chitosan-coated alginate hydrogel were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (sem) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir)#