Microencapsulation of Citrus limon essential oil by complex coacervation and release behavior of terpenic and derived volatile compounds
Nadjet Djihad, Fadloun Oukil Naima, Sílvia Petronilho, Sarah Hamid, Fatiha Bedjou, Manuel A. Coimbra
Food Hydrocolloids
Abstract
Citrus limon essential oil (CEO) is used as food ingredient due to its pleasant aroma and characteristic taste, as well as beneficial health effects. In this study, it was hypothesized that complex coacervation can be used to develop microcapsules able to protect CEO from oxidation reactions while allowing to modulate the terpenic compounds release along digestion. For this, gelatin (G) and carrageenan (C), two oppositely charged polymers, were used to encapsulate CEO recovered from lemon peel by steam distillation. The higher encapsulation yield (93 %) and efficiency (95 %) were obtained when using 1.4 g G, 0.2 g C, and 0.6 mL CEO, defined by a Box-Behnken design and a response surface methodology. The microcapsules had low crystallinity and water activity (aw = 0.2), 0.3 % moisture, 9.9 % hygroscopicity, and 41.7 % water solubility at 20 °C. The G/C microencapsulation did not prevent the early release of monoterpenic compounds and the later release of the less volatile sesquiterpenic compounds. The pleasant aroma of CEO can be perceived 8 months after its microencapsulation. At different pH, approaching gastrointestinal conditions, a fast CEO release from the microcapsules at the first 25 min was observed, allowing to infer its bioavailability. Therefore, G/C microcapsules can safeguard essential oils composition, potentiating their exploitation as functional food ingredients.
Extracted Claims
5 claims extracted from this paper into the knowledge graph
microcapsules have low crystallinity and water activity (aw = 0.2), 0.3 % moisture, 9.9 % hygroscopicity, and 41.7 % water solubility at 20 °C
“The microcapsules had low crystallinity and water activity (aw = 0.2), 0.3 % moisture, 9.9 % hygroscopicity, and 41.7 % water solubility at 20 °C.”
CEO can be perceived 8 months after its microencapsulation
“The pleasant aroma of CEO can be perceived 8 months after its microencapsulation.”
gelatin and carrageenan used to encapsulate Citrus limon essential oil (CEO)
“The higher encapsulation yield (93 %) and efficiency (95 %) were obtained when using 1.4 g G, 0.2 g C, and 0.6 mL CEO, defined by a Box-Behnken design and a response surface methodology.”