Solubilization of food bioactives within lyotropic liquid crystalline mesophases

Idit Amar-Yuli, Dima Libster, Abraham Aserin, Nissim Garti*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

97 Scopus citations

Abstract

Liquid crystals are widely utilized as model systems to mimic biological processes where the phase behavior of lipids plays a mediating role. In various foods and pharmaceutical and biotechnical applications, the liquid crystalline phases formed by surfactants in an aqueous medium represent useful host systems for drugs, amino acids, peptides, proteins and vitamins. Various biologically active food additives are soluble in neither aqueous nor oil phase and require environmental protection against hydrolysis or oxidation. Lyotropic liquid crystals meet these requirements mainly due to their high solubilization capacities for hydrophilic, lipophilic and amphiphilic guest molecules. Moreover, recent studies demonstrated controlled and/or sustained release of solubilized molecules from different liquid crystalline matrices. This paper surveys the solubilization of hydrophilic, lipophilic and amphiphilic guest molecules for food applications and illustrates the corresponding structural transformations. Recent developments in liquid crystal characterization methods are discussed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)21-32
Number of pages12
JournalCurrent Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2009

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