Delivery Of Functional Ingredients

Abstract

The present invention relates to a primary composition comprising all essential nutrients of a fruit or a plant material, which has an increased stability, bio-availability and miscibility; and the process of forming the same. It also relates to an oral composition that contains the primary composition in a foodstuff, in a food supplement, in a cosmetic preparation or in a pharmaceutical preparation.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a primary composition comprising all essential nutrients of a fruit or a plant material, which has an increased stability, bio-availability and miscibility; and the process of forming the same. It also relates to an oral composition that contains the primary composition in a foodstuff, in a food supplement, in a cosmetic preparation or in a pharmaceutical preparation. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] Pigments and bioactive compounds extracted from fruits or plant materials are widely used in the food industry as functional ingredients. Among all of them, wolfberry (Lycium barbarum) is one of the most valued functional ingredients in China, especially for its benefits for eyesight, the immune system, and its anti-ageing properties, associated with the multiple bioactive compounds present in the fruit. It is traditionally consumed through hot water extraction. [0003] Many other ingredients are also well perceived by consumers for their benefic...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010] Advantageously, the primary composition has a close profile of the essential active components of whole fruit, it has a good stability, miscibility and dispersibility in aqueous systems. Moreover, the primary composition has an enhanced nutritional value, in the form of a better bioavailability and stability. It has a pleasant taste and colour. It can be used directly or concentrated or dried into powder for several applications into daily-consumed food products or other nutritional uses.

[0018] The process has the major advantage of being natural and cost effective enabling improved delivery of multi-nutrients in the form of a combination of stabilized water- and fat-soluble compounds, free of organic solvent residues.

[0019] In a further aspect, the invention provides a method for increasing miscibility or dispersibility in an aqueous system, stability, and bioavailability of bioactive compounds of a fruit, vegetable and / or a plant material using a process as described above. In particular, by using milk or milk proteins, soy-milk or milk-like proteins from plants for extracting and delivering the multi-nutrients of functional ingredients of a fruit, a vegetable and / or a plant material.

[0020] It is another object of the invention to provide the use of a primary composition as described above, for delivering the multi-nutrients of functional ingredients of fruits, vegetables and / or plant materials with improved bioavailability, miscibility and stability.

[0021] It is a further object to provide the use of a primary composition as described above for the preparation of an oral, cosmetic or pharmaceutical composition intended for improving skin health, in particular for photo protection of the skin or for protecting skin tissue against ageing.

Problems solved by technology

Many other ingredients are also well perceived by consumers for their beneficial properties, but their applications in food products are either difficult or give poor bioavailability.

In fact, fruits are usually rich in reducing sugars, making the drying and handling of their powder very difficult.

Such a water extraction technique is natural, but is not as efficient as compared to the use of a solvent.

However, solvent extraction techniques are more difficult to handle, and using solvent can impair the natural image and / or nutritional functions of the product.