ABSTRACT
In nature, the food matrix plays an important role in the maintenance of physiological value of nutrients. The “natural” food structures may be one of the four broad categories: (1) brous structures assembled from macromolecules into tissues for speci c functionality, such as muscle; (2) eshy materials from plants that are hierarchal composites of hydrated cells that are bonded together at the cell walls, such as tubers, fruits, and vegetables; (3) encapsulated embryos of plants that contain a dispersion of starch, protein, and lipids assembled into discrete packets such as grains and pulses; and (4) a unique complex uid called milk, containing several nutrients in a state of dispersion. Thermal and physical processing, mastication, and to a limited extent digestion breaks down the matrix releasing the nutrients and rendering them available for absorption and function in the living organism. It is generally agreed that various nutraceuticals when isolated from their natural biological systems may not exhibit full bioactive functions that are associated with them had they been in the natural environments, that is, the food microstructure or the food matrix. Generally, only a small proportion of molecules retain their functions after oral administration. Furthermore, retention of physiological functionality of nutraceuticals is a challenge. A number of reasons have been held responsible for this situation, such as insuf cient gastric residence time, low permeability and solubility within the gut, instability due to the conditions encountered during food processing (temperature, oxygen, and light) or in the gastrointestinal tract (pH, enzymes, and presence of other nutrients). These in turn, in uence the potential health bene ts of nutraceutical molecules. Similarly, drugs, which are formulated into various dosages and are intended to obtain the desired therapeutic responses, may exhibit undesirable actions that are related to a particular route of administration.1 Therefore, there is a need for edible delivery systems for the food, medical, and pharmaceutical industries for optimal retention and delivery of nutraceuticals at their sites of absorption and biological functions. The fact that these delivery systems must be edible puts constraints on the type of ingredients and processing operations that can be used to create them. At the outset, this chapter focuses on various types of carriers of nutraceuticals followed by a discussion on marine macromolecules-derived matrices and their potential applications as carriers and biomembranes for marine nutraceuticals and functional molecules.
