Harnessing Health Potentials: A Comprehensive Review on Probiotics and Encapsulation Strategies for Optimal Delivery

Probiotics are live microorganisms that are primarily lactic acid bacteria. They change the human digestive system's microorganisms, particularly the intestinal microbiome. They provide a number of biologically active substances with demonstrated pharmacological activity such as anticancer, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Because of these qualities, lactic acid bacteria have long been employed as a functional ingredient in food products as well as pharmaceutical applications. Nevertheless, LAB's sensitive nature and vulnerability to harsh and harmful circumstances in the human digestive system, getting into the human gut alive and in enough cells to exert favorable health effects is still a significant challenge. Encapsulation has thus been used and researched as a promising and emerging strategy for good and dependable protection. Therefore, this review focuses primarily on health potentials of probiotics as well as their bioactive substances. Moreover, the advantages of encapsulation of probiotic bacteria have been emphasized, as well as different technologies and matrices used for the encapsulation.