Evaluación del efecto de la cantidad de grasa dietaria sobre la bioaccesibilidad in vitro de ß-caroteno de diferentes microencapsulados

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency is a major public health problem that poses the challenge of finding effective and safe alternatives to reduce it, especially in developing countries. In the search for food products that meet this need, it is important to evaluate the bioaccessibility of vitamin A precursor carotenoids and their interaction with other nutrients, such as fats, present in co-ingested foods, to guarantee the bioavailability of these compounds and their effective utilization in the organism. In this context, the objective of the present titration work was to determine the in vitro bioaccessibility of microencapsulated β-carotene previously obtained from mango peels. Specifically, the degree of influence on the bioaccessibility of β-carotene of the type of extraction method of the carotenoids contained in the microencapsulates (solvent extraction vs. supercritical fluid extraction) and the amount of fat present in the milk co-ingested with the microencapsulates was evaluated. This evaluation was based on a 3 x 2 unbalanced factorial experimental design, in which in vitro digestions of the carotenoid microencapsulates obtained by two types of extraction were carried out with three types of milk (whole, semi-skimmed and skimmed). The carotenoids present in the digests were separated by liquid-liquid extractions for subsequent quantification by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).