Microencapsulation of Rice Bran Oil by Complex Coacervation Using Chitosan – k-carrageenan: Influence of Glutaraldehyde and Tween 20

Abstract

Rice bran oil (RBO) is obtained by extracting rice bran, a byproduct of the rice milling process. It contains vitamins, antioxidants, and nutrients that are very beneficial for the human body. In order to maintain its biological and functional characteristics, the microencapsulation technology is chosen. In this research the coacervation technique was applied using chitosan and k-carrageenan. The influence of the amount of glutaraldehyde as crosslinking agent and Tween 20 as emulsifying agent was studied. Research was conducting by dropping of solution of k-carrageenan containing RBO on the chitosan solution followed by adding glutaraldehyde. After washing and drying, the microcapsules were characterized by FTIR and SEM, and were analyzed for its yield and encapsulation efficiency. The FTIR shows that RBO was successfully loaded on the microcapsules. Analysis using SEM shows that micro-sized particles is not perfectly spherical, have irregular shape, rough surface and also agglomerated. The process has a yield of up 99.90 ± 1.29%. The highest encapsulation efficiency 66.49 ±4.8% was obtained from 0.5 mL Tween 20 and 0.5 mL glutaraldehyde. Increasing amount of glutaraldehyde tend to reduces the particle size since the wall became compact as degree of crosslinking increased. The amount of Tween 20 has little effect on encapsulation size.