出版社：Grupo de Pesquisa Metodologias em Ensino e Aprendizagem em Ciências
摘要：Microencapsulation is a process based on confining the active species (colorant) inside a microscopic capsule, which can confer it protection against labile factors such as light, heat and oxidation. Such technique has been used in the flavoring industry and has a great potential for solving problems related to the use of natural colorants. Thus, this work aimed to apply the microencapsulation technique on natural colorants to enhance their stability and increase their use as food ingredients. The process of encapsulating by spray drying was employed. The colorant chosen was bixin, which is a liposoluble fraction of the pigment urucum (Bixa orellana, L) and the encapsulating agents were maltodextrin, gum arabic and b-cyclodextrin. From these agents, various formulations were obtained by using each agent separately or mixed, followed by stability tests for the micro encapsulated products and for norbixinate (urucum hydrosoluble fraction), used as a control to evaluate the light factor. The microencapsulated products were found to be more stable than the pigment without microencapsulation. Among them, those composed by formulations of gum arabic and maltodextrin mixtures led, in general, to the best performances. The b-cyclodextrin agent was found to be a rather efficient encapsulating agent. Despite its high cost, it is a viable option to increase the stability of natural pigments.
