Stability of curcumin microencapsulated by spray and freeze drying in binary and ternary matrices of maltodextrin, gum arabic and modified starch

Curcumin yellow dye is considered as an antioxidant, susceptible to light and oxi-dative degradation. Microencapsulation improves its stability and facilitates itsuse. This work aimed to investigate the effects of different formulation wall mate-rials (gum arabic, a binary mixture of maltodextrin and modified starch, and aternary mixture of gum arabic, maltodextrin and modified starch) and differentdrying methods (for spray and lyophilization) on the stability of microcapsules ofturmeric oleoresin. The drying method affected retention curcumin powder in thedrying process and storage of the microcapsules under incident light. Curcuminretention during lyophilization was greater than spray drying, but showed theopposite behavior during storage; spray-dried capsules had a higher retention ofcurcumin after 8 weeks under light exposure. As a result, the ternary mixture ofgum arabic, modified starch and maltodextrin was more effective to prevent lossof curcumin and color changes in the microcapsuleFundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq