Carrageenan as an anionic polymer for aqueous microencapsulation.

All aqueous microencapsulation involving the use of the anionic polymer alginate as its amine salt with spermine has been recently studied for the encapsulation of live viruses and isolated proteins. It was of interest to study the influence of another anionic polymer, carrageenan, on the encapsulation of a single protein. Trypsin, used as a the model protein, was encapsulated in spermine carrageenan macrocapsules. It was found that trypsin retains its structure as evidenced by SDS-PAGE analysis and its functional integrity measured as specific enzymatic activity. Thus, carrageenan can serve as anionic polymer in all aqueous charged film encapsulation systems.