Developing organogel-based Pickering emulsions with improved freeze-thaw stability and hesperidin bioaccessibility

Abstract Soybean oil-based organogel was structured using monostearin, and the organogel had a gel-sol melting temperature of 44.0 °C. Loading amount of hesperidin in soybean oil-based organogels could be about twice as much as metastable solubility of hesperidin in soybean oil. Organogel-in-water Pickering emulsion was formed using the soybean oil-based organogel as the oil phase and ovotransferrin (OVT) fibrils as the emulsifier. Visual observation indicated that organogel-based Pickering emulsions stabilized by OVT fibrils (40 mg/mL) at oil fractions of 0.50–0.85 had excellent storage stability and could withstand three cycles of freeze-thaw treatments. Conventional oil-in-water Pickering emulsion was prepared as control to better understand impact of organogel incorporation on freeze-thaw stability, and conventional Pickering emulsion was formed using soybean oil as the oil phase and OVT fibrils as the emulsifier. Freeze-thaw stability of organogel-based Pickering emulsions was better than that of conventional Pickering emulsions (without organogel) stabilized by OVT fibrils. In vitro digestion study revealed that organogel-based Pickering emulsion could improve both the extent of lipolysis and hesperidin bioaccessibility when compared with organogel. This study demonstrates the feasibility of formulating novel food-grade organogel-based Pickering emulsions with high nutraceutical loading, excellent freeze-thaw stability and improved nutraceutical bioaccessibility.