Introduction to delivery system – encapsulation
Delivery system technology is one of the most important technologies in the pharmaceutical industry. The early development of the delivery system for drugs dates back to 1000 years ago by 2 celebrated alchemists, Rhazes and Avicenna. They coated pills with psyllium and silver, intending to reduce the bitterness of the drug, but it also affected the release rate of the drug once consumed1. The process was later known as ‘Encapsulation’ and is now widely used in the food and pharma industry.
By definition, Encapsulation is the process of stabilising active compounds by structuring systems capable of preserving their chemical, physical, and biological properties and their release or delivery under established or desired conditions2.
Indesso has successfully developed new encapsulation technique, Naturarte® BIO. It employs fluidised bed drying technology and caters to the tea and herbal infusion industry.
Naturarte® BIO the solution for tea or herbal infusion products
It is a product that resembles tea leaves with encapsulated active compounds attached to the surface of the tea biomass. It is used in flavored tea bags, loose-leaf, or botanical infusion products, where the encapsulated ‘extracts/aroma granule’ can disperse without risk of separation. To prevent phase separation, the granule’s bulk density and particle size must be similar to the rest of the tea leaves mass. Naturarte® BIO solves those issues entirely with the appearance that blends well with the rest of the tea and customisable particle size to fit the customer’s needs.
One example is encapsulated lemon extract and oil on the surface of black tea leaves (See Figure 1.0). Like typical aroma granules, it uses this Naturarte® BIO at a concentration of 1 to 3 % in tea leaf to produce perfectly camouflaged aroma granules while still maintaining the fast release of aroma when steeped in hot water. The final tea leaves mixed with Naturarte® BIO can be packaged in the loose-leaf format, paper tea bag, or nylon tea bag. This technology comes in variants like ginger, red ginger, lemongrass, and peppermint, and it can be combined with a selection of biomasses from green tea, black tea, or custom blended to suit the needs of customers.
Using the same technology, you can also use different types of biomass as the base and encapsulate a wide variety of active ingredients and extracts or aroma components on its surface. The size, shape, type of the tea or biomass can be adjusted accordingly based on customers’ need to fit into almost any infusion product (Figure 2.0).
1Rezaie, H. R., Esnaashary, M., & Öchsner, A. (2018). The History of Drug Delivery Systems. In A Review of Biomaterials and Their Applications in Drug Delivery (pp. 1-8). Springer, Singapore.
2Sonawane, S. H., Bhanvase, B. A., Sivakumar, M., & Potdar, S. B. (2020). Current overview of encapsulation. Encapsulation of Active Molecules and Their Delivery System, 1-8.
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