Esterified astaxanthins are used as functional nutraceuticals in many food products. Unfortunately, their utilization is currently limited owing to their poor water solubility, chemical instability, and low bioavailability. In this study, esterified astaxanthin microcapsules were fabricated through electrostatic complexation of whey protein and gum arabic by adjusting the pH to 4.0. After their encapsulation, the stability of the esterified astaxanthins was effectively better than that of the oleoresin. In vitro tests revealed a 26% rate of astaxanthin release from the microcapsules, which was significantly higher than the 14.6% rate from the oleoresin (P < 0.05). In vivo experiments showed that the AUC_0-t value after oral gavage of the microcapsules (8.23 ± 1.33 h·μg·mL⁻¹) was approximately 2-fold higher than that after gavage of the oleoresin (3.72 ± 0.98 h·μg·mL⁻¹). In conclusion, the bioavailability of esterified astaxanthins can be significantly improved by microencapsulation.

酯化虾青素在许多食品中被用作功能性保健食品。不幸的是，由于其水溶性差，化学不稳定性和低生物利用度，目前它们的利用受到限制。在这项研究中，通过将乳清蛋白和阿拉伯树胶进行静电络合，将pH值调节到4.0，可以制备酯化的虾青素微胶囊。包封后，酯化虾青素的稳定性实际上好于油树脂的稳定性。体外试验显示，虾青素从微囊中释放的比例为26％，显着高于油脂树脂中14.6％的比例（P  <0.05）。体内实验表明AUC _0-t口服管饲后的微囊值（8.23±1.33 h·μg·mL ^-1）比油树脂吸附后的值（3.72±0.98 h·μg·mL ^-1）高约2倍。总之，通过微囊化可以显着提高酯化虾青素的生物利用度。