Microencapsulation of pequi pulp by spray drying: use of modified starches as encapsulating agent

• Autor(a) principal: Santana,Audirene A.
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Oliveira,Rafael A. de, Kurozawa,Louise E., Park,Kil J.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Engenharia Agrícola
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-69162014000500017
• topic: Caryocar brasiliense; spray drying; experimental design; encapsulation; morphology

The aim of this study was to evaluate the microencapsulation of pequi pulp by spray drying. A central composite rotational design was used in order to evaluate the effect of the independent variables: inlet air temperature, surfactant concentration and modified starch concentration. The dependent variables were assumed as yield of the process and the product features microencapsulated. A selection of the best process condition was performed to obtain the best condition of a product with the highest vitamin C and carotenoids content. Powders showed moisture content below 2%. The experimental values of hygroscopicity, yield, water activity, total carotenoids and vitamin C powders ranged from 7.96 to 10.67 g of adsorbed water/100g of solids, 24.34 to 49.80%, 0.13 to 0.30, 145.78 to 292.11 mg of ascorbic acid/g of pequi solids and 15.51 to 123.42 mg of carotenoids/g of pequi solids, respectively. The inlet air temperature 140°C, the surfactant concentration of 2.5% and the modified starch concentration of 22.5% was recommended as the selected condition. By the scanning electron microscopy, it was observed that most of the particles had spherical shape and smooth surface.