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Updated: Aug 19, 2025
In vitro Digestion of Emulsions in a Single Droplet via Multi Subphase Exchange of Simulated Gastrointestinal Fluids
Published on: November 18, 2022
Evaluating the in vitro digestion of lipids rich in medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) using dynamic and static
Ericsem Pereira1, Jean-Michel Fernandes2, Raquel Gonçalves2
1School of Food Engineering, University of Campinas, 13083-062 Campinas, Brazil; Centre of Biological Engineering, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal; LABBELS - Associate Laboratory on Biotechnology and Bioengineering, and Electromechanical Systems, University of Minho, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.
Abstract:
Investigating the digestion of lipids is paramount for developing new lipid-based products. This work evaluated the gastrointestinal (GI) digestion of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) rich lipids. The dynamic GI in vitro system was used to simulate gastric, duodenal, jejunal, and ileal GI tract portions. Results from the dynamic protocol were compared against static in vitro assays and GC analyses were conducted to assess the FA profile of FFA released during digestion. Caprylic and capric acids released during the gastric digestion of MCT oil varied from 61-63% and 36-38% of total esterified FA, respectively. Lauric acid was the most representative FFA released (31-54%) during the gastric digestion of coconut oil samples. It was observed that the gastric digestion phase plays a crucial role in the MCFA lipolysis and the lipase activity restricted the amount of free MCFA liberated during the GI digestion, resulting in incomplete lipids hydrolysis.
