Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

Probiotics are the beneficial microbes which are required for the health benefit of human being. The major limitation in the use of probiotics is their loss of viability during storage as well during passage through the upper gastrointestinal tract. Probiotic encapsulation technology has the potential to protect microorganisms and to deliver them into the gut. In order to overcome the limitation of viability in upper gastrointestinal tract, Lactobacillus Rhamnosus GG encapsulated pectin and sodium carboxy methyl cellulose microbeads of probiotics: polymer ratio (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) were fabricated using the ionotropic gelation technique. In addition, the developed microbeads were coated with Eudragit S 100 and cellulose acetate phthalate and compared for bead size, flow properties, entrapment efficiency, percent yield, swelling index, mucoadhesiveness, in vitro release and viability of probiotics. The developed microbeads have shown increase of probiotics:polymer ratio significantly improves entrapment efficiency, percent yield, swelling index, mucoadhesiveness, in vitro release and viability of probiotics. Thus, coated microbeads could be a potential delivery system for storage and administration of probiotics.