Introduction:

Grape seed oil (GSO) contains unsaturated fatty acids that make it susceptible to degradation, causing it to deteriorate. In this sense, microencapsulation in biopolymer matrices is a good alternative to protect it.

Objective:

To microencapsulate GSO by spray drying of emulsions stabilized with biopolymer complexes formed from whey protein concentrate (WPC) and hawthorn pectin (HP) from two different cultivars.

Methodology:

Emulsions were developed with different wall material: GSO ratios (2:1 and 3:1) and percentage of total solids (30 and 40 %). The wall materials were WPC-citrus pectin and WPC-HP from two cultivars (HP55 and HP100, with an esterification degree of 70.3 and 61 %, respectively). The factors evaluated were viscosity, mean surface diameter (d 3,2 ) and morphology of the emulsions, and d 3,2 , microencapsulation efficiency (MEE) and electron microscopy of the microcapsules.

Results:

The d 3,2 of the emulsions ranged from 1.45 to 2.54 μm, where EWPC-HP100,3:1 exhibited the smallest d 3,2 . These values were related to the type of pectin and were inversely proportional to the viscosity and solids content. The highest MEE was presented by MWPC-HP100,3:1 (71.29 %), which had the highest viscosity and the lowest d 3,2 in the emulsion.

Study limitations:

The behavior of only two hawthorn cultivars is presented.

Originality:

There are no reports of the use of HP biopolymer complexes from national cultivars and WPC as wall materials for the protection of bioactive materials.

Conclusions:

The use of novel biopolymers such as HP (HP55 and HP100) allowed obtaining microcapsules with adequate morphology and high MEE.