# Human Oral Phase Coupled with In Vitro Dynamic Gastrointestinal Digestion for Assessment of Plant Sterol Bioaccessibility from Wholemeal Rye Bread

## TL;DR

This study evaluates how well plant sterols from wholemeal rye bread are released during digestion, finding that PS-enriched bread is a good dietary choice.

## Contribution

The study introduces a novel adaptation of a dynamic digestion system to assess plant sterol bioaccessibility from solid food matrices.

## Key findings

- The bioaccessibility of total plant sterols from PS-enriched wholemeal rye bread is 19.9%.
- Δ7-avenasterol is the most bioaccessible sterol, while Δ5-avenasterol is the least.
- Dynamic digestion methods provide a closer approximation to real-life digestion scenarios despite their complexity.

## Abstract

A dynamic gastrointestinal
digestion system (simgi) after a human
oral phase was used, for the first time, to assess the bioaccessibility
of plant sterols (PS) from wholemeal rye bread (74.8 ± 2.2 mg
of PS/100 g d.m.) and PS-enriched wholemeal rye bread (PS-WRB) (1.6
± 0.04 g of PS/100 g of fresh bread). The use of these solid
food matrices requires a novel adaptation of the gastric phase of
the system. The PS identified in the breads are campesterol, campestanol,
stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, sitostanol, Δ5-avenasterol,
Δ5,24-stigmastadienol, Δ7-stigmastenol, and Δ7-avenasterol.
The bioaccessibility of the total PS, only quantifiable in PS-WRB,
is 19.9%, with Δ7-avenasterol being the most bioaccessible and
Δ5-avenasterol being the least (p < 0.05).
As shown in this study, PS-WRB can be considered to be a good choice
to include in the daily diet. Furthermore, although the use of dynamic
digestion methods for evaluating bioaccessibility implies high costs
and technical complexity, their application means a closer approximation
to in vivo scenarios.