MICROENCAPSULATION OF TURMERIC OLEORESIN IN BINARY AND TERNARY BLENDS OF GUM ARABIC, MALTODEXTRIN AND MODIFIED STARCH

Spray-drying is a suitable method to obtain microencapsulated active substances in the powdered form, resulting in powders with improved protection against environmental factors as well as with higher solubility in water, as in the case of turmeric oleoresin. The present study investigated the spray-drying process of turmeric oleoresin microencapsulated with binary and ternary mixtures of different wall materials: gum Arabic, maltodextrin, and modified corn starch. A statistical simplex centroid experimental design was used considering the encapsulation efficiency, curcumin retention, process yield, water content, solubility, and particle morphology as the analyzed responses. Wall matrices containing higher proportions of modified starch and gum Arabic resulted in higher encapsulation efficiency and curcumin retention, whereas the process yield and water content increased with higher proportions of maltodextrin and gum Arabic, respectively. Regression models of the responses were obtained using a surface response method ( ANOVA way), showing statistical values of R-2 > 0.790. Also, mean analysis was carried out by Tukey's test, permitting to observe some statistical differences between the blends.