Introduction

What is Microencapsulation ?

Application of Microencapsulation

Hot melt coating

Cyclodextrins

Extrusion

Emulsion Stabilisation

Jet break-up Processes

Super Critical Fluid technology

Complex Coacervation

Application of microencapsulation

Actually about any area in the industry could beneficiate from microencapsulation technologies. Microencapsulation can be found in :

- Cell immobilisation :

• in plant cell cultures microencapsulation, by mimicking cell natural environment, improves efficiency in production of different metabolites used for medical, pharmacological and cosmetic purposes.

• human tissue are turned into bio-artificial organs by encapsulation in natural polymers and transplanted to control hormone-deficient diseases such as diabetes and severe cases of hepatic failure.

• in continuous fermentation processes immobilisation is used to increase cell density, productivity and to avoid washout of the biological catalysts from the reactor. This has already been applied in ethanol and solvent production, sugar conversion or wastewater treatment.

- Beverage production : today beer, wine, vinegar and other food drinks production are using immobilisation technologies to boost yield, improve quality, change aromas, etc...

- Protection of molecules from other compounds : microencapsulation is often a necessity to solve simple problem like the difficulty to handle chemicals (detergents dangerous if directly exposed to human skin) as well as many other molecule inactive or incompatible if mixed in any formulation. Moreover, microencapsulation allows also to prepare many formulation with lower chemical loads reducing significantly processes’ cost.

- Drug delivery : after designing the right biodegradable polymers, microencapsulation has permitted controlled release delivery systems. These revolutionary systems allow controlling the rate, duration and distribution of the active drug. With these systems, microparticles sensitive to the biological environment are designed to deliver an active drug in a site-specific way (stomach, colon, specific organs). One of the main advantages of such systems is to protect sensitive drug from drastic environment (pH, ...) and to reduce the number of drug administrations for patient.

- Quality and safety in food, agricultural & environmental sectors : development of the “biosensors” has been enhanced by encapsulated bio-systems used to control environmental pollution, food cold chain (abnormal temperature change)...

- Soil inoculation : for example Rhizobium is a very interesting bacteria which improves nitrate adsorption and conversion. But inoculation is often unsuccessful because cells are washed out by rain. By cell encapsulation processes, it is possible to maintain continuous inoculation and higher cell concentration.

This list is not exhaustive, the nutraceuticals’ world could be the last mentioned because of the growing interest & increasing demand we have to face in ingredients with health benefits which often require improvement of their efficiency and stability (e.g. probiotics, vitamins...) by protecting and offering targeting release of the active materials.

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