Abstract—Kabocha pumpkin (Curcubita maxima [Duchesne ex Lamb.]) is a potential source of carotenoids. However, the usage of carotenoids is limited due to their instability and also their susceptible degradation against harmful conditions such as base and acidic conditions, oxidation, and illumination. In this study, kabocha carotenoids were incorporated into microencapsulation containing chitosan, sodium alginate and sodium tripolyphosphate. The objective of this study is to determine the formulation of coating agents, carotenoid stability in acidic conditions for mimicking the microencapsulation process, and to characterize the microencapsulated carotenoids including the determination of the efficiency of carotenoid incorporation into microencapsulates. A mixture of sodium alginate, chitosan and sodium tripolyphosphate (0.19 g : 1.92 g : 0.24 g, w/w/w) was the best of coating agents according to the physical characteristics and also its moisture content. Microcapsules obtained with and without addition of carotenoids were determined to be a microparticle size by SEM analysis. The products of microencapsulated carotenoids have the water content of around 5.4% to 7.1%.The highest efficiency of microencapsulation obtained was 91% at the carotenoid concentration of 117.98 μg ∙ g
−1 (0.5 %, w/v), although the efficiency was decreased with increasing carotenoids added to the microcapsules probably due to over loading of carotenoids used. The pattern of this efficiency was in line with L* and °hue values, whereas not only a*, b*, and chroma values, but total carotenoids, and total provitamin A also increased.
Index Terms—Carotenoids, emulsion, kabocha (Curcubita maxima [Duchesne ex Lamb.]), microencapsulation, pumpkin.
Naomi M. Mulyadi, Tri D. Widyaningsih, and Novita Wijayanti are with the Department of Agricultural Product Technology, Brawijaya University, Malang, Indonesia.
Renny Indrawati and Heriyanto are with Ma Chung Research Center for Photosynthetic Pigments (MRCPP) and Chemistry Study Program, Universitas Ma Chung, Malang, Indonesia.
Leenawaty Limantara is with Ma Chung Research Center for Photosynthetic Pigments (MRCPP), Universitas Ma Chung, Malang, Indonesia and Center for Urban Studies, Universitas Pembangunan Jaya, Jakarta, Indonesia (email: leenawaty.limantara@upj.ac.id).
[PDF]
Cite: Naomi M. Mulyadi, Tri D. Widyaningsih, Novita Wijayanti, Renny Indrawati, Heriyanto, and Leenawaty Limantara, "Microencapsulation of Kabocha Pumpkin Carotenoids," International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 381-386, 2017.
