pH-responsive delivery of rebaudioside a sweetener via mucoadhesive whey protein isolate core-shell nanocapsules

Rebaudioside (Reb A) is a natural high-intensity sweetener available for commercial use. Its application has been hampered, however, by its unnatural sweetness profile and bitter aftertaste at higher concentration thresholds. The goal of this research was to mitigate these shortcomings increasing the sweetening power, thus lowering amount needed achieve desired sweetness, specifically in acidic liquid media. We achieved stated via fabrication mucoadhesive delivery vehicle that can be retained on tongue mucosa allowed more targeted prolonged release near taste bud. have chosen hydrolyzed whey protein isolate pectin as shell materials crosslinked them an ultrasonic process. In pursuit our goal, we found WPI-Pectin most suitable all protein-polysaccharide combinations tested, yielding nanocapsules with average particle sizes 393 nm polydispersity index (PDI) 0.43. These capsules could resuspended water ζ-potential −20.4 mV. WPI-pectin system also shown twice effective depositing Reb A surface regular solution. Finally, demonstrated WPI desirable pH-responsive beverages minimal conditions (7.1 %) neutral (19.5 %).