Use of guar gum, gum arabic, pectin, beta-glucan and inulin for microencapsulation of anthocyanins from chokeberry.

The aim of this study was to use micro-encapsulation technology to create microcapsules containing anthocyanins from chokeberry with guar gum, gum arabic, pectin, ß-glucan and inulin as wall material. Aqueous extracts from chokeberry fruit were enclosed and spray dried using maltodextrin as a coating material with the addition of guar gum, gum arabic, pectin, beta-glucan, and inulin respectively. Physical properties of microcapsules were tested. The preparations also determined the total content of anthocyanins and vitamin C on the day of preparation and after 7 days of storage. In the executed research, the highest moisture content for gum arabic capsules was observed. The most different parameters of color were observed for capsules with beta-glucan. The biggest particles were observed for gum arabic and the smallest for guar gum. The differences were also noticed in chemical assays. The highest content of anthocyanins on the day of drying and after 7 days of storage was noticed for beta-glucan samples whereas the lowest content was observed for gum arabic samples. In case of vitamin C content, the sample, which stood out particularly, was pectin sample. The main conclusion is that the micro-encapsulation is an effective method to maintain the stability of sensitive compounds such as anthocyanins, but also ascorbic acid.

Barley ß-d-glucan - modified starch complex as potential encapsulation agent for fish oil.

The aim of the study was to examine physicochemical characteristics of fish oil microcapsules produced at different temperatures and estimate the optimal ratio of BG, CS and spray drying temperature. Only the interaction between spray drying and ß-d-glucan content played a significant role in influencing the encapsulation efficiency and spray drying itself (p ≤ 0.001 and p ≤ 0.05). Temperature played a significant role in increasing particle size as well, but the coefficient for this parameter was lower (0.179). The observed differences in particle size of microcapsules could be caused by the differences in glass transition temperature of the polymers (ß-d-glucan and modified starch) used as wall material. It could be seen that the lowest TBARS content was observed when the ß-d-glucan in the wall material was at relatively high level (85%) with moderate temperature applied (154 °C) - 0.56 mg of malonaldehyde/kg of powder. The highest amount of EPA was present in the sample with 50% share of ß-d-glucan and spray dried in 150 °C (10.22 ±â€¯0.24). After examination of all runs of the experiment, we have made optimization study to obtain the wall material composition and spray drying temperature values which will be most appropriate for fish oil encapsulation.

Effect of natural flocculants on purity and properties of ß-glucan extracted from barley and oat.

In this study, ß-glucan was extracted from wholegrain oat and barley flours by a novel extraction and purification method employing natural flocculants (chitosan, guar gum and gelatin). The use of flocculants decreased the total amount of extracted gum, which was highest in control samples (9.07 and 7.9% for oat and barley, respectively). The ß-glucan specific yield, however, increased with the use of chitosan and guar gum, which were able to remove protein and ash impurities resulting in gums with a higher purity.The highest concentration of chitosan (0.6 %) resulted in gums with the highest ß-glucan content (82.0 ±â€¯0.23 and 79.0 ±â€¯0.19 for barley and oat, respectively) and highest ß-glucan specific yield (96.9 and 93.3 % for oat and barley, respectively). Explanation is in R&D section. The use of gelatin was not successful. All gum samples had a high content of total dietary fiber (>74%) and a high water holding capacity (4.6-7.4 g/g), but differed in apparent viscosity, which was highest for the oat sample extracted with 0.6% chitosan. This sample also showed the highest ß-glucan molecular weight among the oat samples, which were in general 10-fold higher than for the barley samples. Among the barley samples, ß-glucan molecular weight was highest for the control.