ABSTRACT
This study aimed to evaluate the best methods from extracting natural pigments from tomato fruit wastes by four techniques used to extract lycopene and β-carotene each of them consisting of three solvents: ethanol, acetone and hexane in the following ratios (1:1:1), (2:1:1), (1:2:1) and (1:1:2) ml respectively. We studied too the possibility of encapsulation by freeze drying with a mixture of gelatin and gum Arabic as a carrier in nine microcapsules differing with respect to the total encapsulant (E) (2.5, 5.0, and 7.5%) and core (C) concentrations, the latter varying in relation to the total weight of encapsulant (25, 50, and 75%). The nine microcapsules were coded as follows: (1) E2.5/C25; (2) E2.5/C50; (3) E2.5/C75; (4) E5.0/C25; (5) E5.0/C50; (6) E5.0/C75; (7) E7.5/C25; (8) E7.5/C50; and (9) E7.5/C75. We found that the best solvent mixture for the extraction process was 1:1:2, and the most efficient microcapsules were E5.0/C75, E5.0/C50 and E2.5/C25. By studying the stability of the best three microcapsules when exposed to different values of heat, light, oxygen and pH, it was found that the most stable of them was E5.0/C75, followed by E5.0/C50 and then E2.5/C25. It was therefore recommended that further future studies are needed to evaluate the potential of this microcapsule as a natural additive in food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.