Development of functional feed additives by encapsulation of α-tocopherol in β-cyclodextrin and co-treatment of α-linolenic acid / betaine

Abstract

Functional materials are agents that have biological function with small amount, such as vitamins, hormones and neurotransmitters. There are various types of functional materials, and their biological functions can be classified into anti-inflammation effect, anti-oxidation effect and methyl-group donation etc. Functional materials are on the border between food and medicine because of its high efficiency of biological functions. Especially, many types of functional materials are contained in livestock products, and by strengthening the amount of those materials, functional livestock products can be produced. Functional bioactive materials have some obstacles until entering into the body and functioning. Because of low stability in high temperature or UV light, they can be degraded during storage, delivery and processing. After intake, the low pH in stomach and enzymatic reaction can degrade the functional molecules. Furthermore, many of the functional materials such as unsaturated fatty acids or lipophilic vitamins are hardly dissolved in water, resulting in low absorption rate by intestinal epithelial barrier. The low stability and low bioavailability of the material are the key obstacles of their usage. To overcome this obstacles, we tried two strategies. The first study is encapsulating α-tocopherol in β-CD with surfactant mixture system. β-CD is popular encapsulation material which can include other hydrophobic material inside of its cyclic structure, forming inclusion complex. But β-CD encapsulation still has limited solubility, and has no way of optimization for II each guest molecule. So, we used surfactant mixture system together with β- CD encapsulation to improve the solubility and optimize encapsulation efficiency and release efficiency. The second study is about determining synergistic effect of ALA and betaine. By finding out synergistic composition of ALA and betaine, we can develop feed additives composed of two synergistic materials together. In chapter 1, α-tocopherol was encapsulated in β-CD with various ratio of tween 80 and span 80. The encapsulated α-tocopherol showed better encapsulation efficiency, better release rate, better stability, and finally enhanced accumulation of α-tocopherol in yolk when supplemented to hens. In chapter 2, the synergistic effect of ALA and betaine on myoblast proliferation and differentiation was analyzed. Single treatment of ALA and betaine had a little effect on myoblast proliferation or differentiation, but co-treatment of ALA and betaine enhanced both proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts. These results indicated that α-tocopherol encapsulation can enhance better stability and bioavailability, which can be applied to developing efficient functional feed additives. Moreover, ALA and betaine were found out to be have synergistic effect, so supplement of ALA and betaine together to animals probably have better effects than single supplement of ALA or betaine.