Advances in synthesis of synbiotic microcapsules with oligosaccharides and polysaccharides and their biomedical...

Probiotics are widely recognized for their extensive health benefits, but they are extremely vulnerable to environmental factors throughout processing, preservation, and digestion. Microencapsulation technology serves as an effective protective avenue for probiotics, by mitigating or preventing these detrimental environmental impacts. Functional sugars, like oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, recognized as prebiotics, can function as both wall materials for microcapsules that safeguard probiotics and agents that promote probiotic growth and activity. In recent years, the creation of synbiotic microcapsules has provided a promising method for improving the bioavailability of probiotics and functional sugars during processing, preservation, and the digestion phase in the gastrointestinal tract. This review discusses recent advancements in performance and biomedical efficacy of various synbiotic microcapsules using oligosaccharides and polysaccharides, encompassing a total of 45 studies focusing on a variety of probiotic strains, primarily including Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Bacillus, Streptococcus, etc. Among these, 14 investigations employed oligosaccharides, including fructooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, and isomaltooligosaccharides, and 18 studies used polysaccharides such as inulin, chitosan, resistant starch, pectin, kelp polysaccharides, and konjac glucomannan, and 2 studies also explored the microencapsulation effect of oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. The employed synbiotic microgel manufacturing methods in these studies mainly include emulsification, extrusion, spray drying, freeze-drying, and complex coacervation. In addition, 11 studies explored the enhanced activities of synbiotic microcapsules against several disease conditions, mainly including gastrointestinal diseases, metabolic diseases, and other types of diseases. Overall, the development of synbiotic microcapsules constitutes a potent approach for enhancing the viability of probiotics throughout the production stages and digestive phases, thereby boosting their biological activities against diseases, and also possesses great applicative potential in functional foods.