INFLUENCE OF THE SHELL MATERIAL IN THE MICROCAPSULES FORMATION BY SPRAY DRYING

Microencapsulation is a process of entrapment, packaging or immobilizing an active (core) material, which can be in the state of solid, liquid or gas, within a more stable, protective secondary (wall) material that can be released at controlled rates under specific conditions. There are several microencapsulation techniques such as: spray drying, spray cooling/chilling, freeze drying, extrusion, fluidized bed coating, coacervation, liposome entrapment, coextrusion, interfacial polymerization, radical polymerization, molecular inclusion in cyclodextrins, etc. Spray drying has been commonly applied due to their simplicity process, wide availability of equipment facilities, significant merits in terms of reductions in product volume, easy of handling, etc. In the spray drying process the wall materials (shells) and their properties are parameters to be considered to achieve proper encapsulation of the active ingredients (core materials). Some commonly used wall materials and their properties related to spray drying encapsulation, including proteins, carbohydrates, and other materials, or mixtures of some of them. Proper encapsulation of the active ingredient (core) is essential to achieve this active material protecting the outer. The aim of this work is encapsulated an essential oil, sage oil, using two differet wall materials in order to determine which is the best wall material. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used in order to know the microcapsules morphology. Core, Shell, Gum Arabic, Alginate, Sage oil, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)