  Nanoencapsulation has become a widespread technique to improve the
bioavailability of bioactive compounds like lycopene. Consumption of lycopene
rich foods is effective in preventing cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular
diseases due to its strong, oxygen-quenching ability. But the functional
activity of lycopene is compromised by light, oxygen, and heat. A biodegradable
polymer such as PLA or PLGA is the most effective carrier for encapsulating
lycopene due to its excellent biodegradability, biocompatibility, and
nontoxigenic effect on the human metabolic system. Hence, the primary objective
of this study was to evaluate the effect of pasteurization on bioaccessibility
and control release kinetics of encapsulated lycopene nanoparticles in invitro
human GIT. In the first objective, sonication time, surfactant, and polymer
concentration were considered as the three factors to synthesize polymeric
lycopene nanoparticles (LNP) whereas in the second objective, type of
pasteurization, encapsulation, and juice concentration were three factors. In
Objectives 4 and 5, the type of encapsulation and pasteurization, and digestion
time were evaluated as the three factors used to evaluate the in-vitro
bioaccessibility of encapsulated lycopene NP. The study evidenced that
encapsulation improved the lycopene's bioaccessibility by 70% and more than 60%
for conventional pasteurized (CP) and microwave pasteurized (MP) nanoemulsions,
respectively without compromising the physicochemical properties of both PLA
and PLGA-lycopene nanoparticles. The invitro bioaccessibility study also showed
that CP reduced the functional activity of PLALNP by 20% whereas MP had no
significant effect on the bioaccessibility of PLA LNP. It is unlikely that the
PLGA LNP was more sensitive against MP nanoemulsion than the CP. In conclusion,
it was shown that the PLA LNP treated with MP provided the highest
bioaccessibility.
