Stabilization of betalains by encapsulation—a review

Betalains are pigments that have properties that benefit health, such as antioxidant, anticancer, and antimicrobial activity, and they also possess a high ability to provide color. However, these pigments, although used as colorants in certain foods, have not been able to be potentialized to diverse areas such as pharmacology, due to their instability to physicochemical factors such as high temperature, pH changes and high water activity. For this reason, different stabilization methods have been reported. The method that has presented best results for diversifying the use of betalains has been encapsulation. Encapsulation is a method of entrapment where the objective is to protect a compound utilizing more stable matrices from encapsulation technologies. This method has been employed to provide greater stability to betalains, using different matrices and encapsulation technologies. However, a review does not exist, to our knowledge, which analyzes the effect of matrices and encapsulation technologies on betalains stabilization. Therefore, the objective of this review article was to evaluate the different matrices and encapsulation techniques that have been employed to stabilize betalains, in order to arrive at specific conclusions concerning the effect of encapsulation on their stabilization and to propose new techniques and matrices that could promote their stabilization.