Form of phytosterols and food matrix in which they are incorporated modulate their incorporation into mixed micelles and impact cholesterol micellarization.

Scope: The ability of different plant sterols/stanols (PS) mixtures, which differed in the degree of B-ring saturation and aliphatic side chain structure and saturation, to reduce cholesterol (CH) micellarization was explored.

Methods And Results: Experiments were performed using an in vitro digestion model, synthetic mixed micelles, and pure porcine pancreatic lipases. Sterols were measured by GC-FID.