Microencapsulation of Ginger Oil in 18DE Maltodextrin/Whey Protein Isolate.

Essential oil from fresh ginger was extracted by steam distillation. Microencapsulation of volatile ginger oil was done by spray-drying using maltodextrin and whey protein isolate as wall materials. An orthogonal design was used to evaluate the influence of the capsule wall materials on the oil retention (OR) and microencapsulation efficiency (MEE) of ginger oil by spray-drying. The best conditions for higher MEE and OR were found to be a 1:1 ratio of whey protein isolate to maltodextrin, a 1:4 ratio of core to wall material, and total solid content of 25%. The spray-drying conditions used were homogenizer pressure at 30 MPa, inlet air temperature at 120°C, and outlet air temperature of 60°C. MEE and OR were 99.36% and 93.30%, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the microcapsules were free of visible cracks and pores. Gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry showed only slight loss during spray-drying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]