Monodispersed microencapsulation technologies

Microencapsulation science has led to many applications of great utility in pharmaceuticals, vaccines, cellular biology, agriculture, and food science. A common theme with microencapsulation technologies is the desire to control the release of a drug, protein, organism, flavor, or fragrance in different environments, at specific times, or in a particular fashion. When the microencapsulated form of an active is contained within a uniformly shaped vehicle, such as a spherical particle, the ability to predict release characteristics can be relatively straightforward with mathematical modeling. Because release rate and the mechanism are typically governed by particle diameter (or shell thickness), a population of differently sized spherical particles behaves, at best, as an average of all particle sizes within that population. However, if all particles in the population are uniform, prediction and repeatability of release mechanisms, timing, and duration are straightforward. Furthermore, many recent microencapsulation technologies focus on creating particles with a high degree of monodispersity, specifically with sizes in the micrometer range. This chapter covers the salient characteristics of technologies that allow uniform microsphere production from submicron to millimeter range and how the food and flavors industry can benefit from such capabilities.