Food hydrocolloids: Functional, nutraceutical and novel applications for delivery of bioactive compounds

Abstract Nowadays, the consumers' understanding of the relation between diet and health has bought a profound change in their dietary pattern and lifestyle transformation. They aspire more to natural and health-full food products with desired quality and functionality. The emergence of this consciousness among consumers has become one of the driving factors for designing food products that can meet both their specific nutritional needs and health benefits. Known as the skeleton structure of food, hydrocolloids from food biopolymers have thus received much attention in recent years from both scientific communities as well as from consumers and food sectors. They play a crucial role in the tribology, rheology and sensory perceptions of food and pharmaceutical formulations when been utilized as viscosity enhancers, gelling agents, emulsifiers, coating, and stabilizing agents. Further, the implication of this multifarious class of biopolymers has increased tremendously because of their remarkable therapeutic potential. Based on prevailing literature hydrocolloids offer significant opportunities in tailoring the nutritional value along with providing health benefits via controlling gastric emptying and ileal brake mechanism, lowering plasma cholesterol levels, glycemic response, postprandial glucose and insulin levels, and prevention of colon cancer, and improving the bioavailability of specific bioactive compounds and drugs through their controlled and targeted delivery along the gastrointestinal tract. This review provides a comprehensive discussion on the functionality and nutraceutical potential of food colloids as a functional food ingredient with a specific focus on their application as controlled release excipients for nutraceuticals or drug release systems.