Determination of structural, conformational and antiradical properties of carvacrol encapsulated with yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae)

Abstract

Carvacrol is the most studied phenolic substance, one of the essential components of thyme. The encapsulation technique can be used to make more stable carvacrol, which has decreased stability due to environmental factors. In this study, it was aimed to encapsulate and characterize carvacrol, which is used in the food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industry, with yeast cells. Yeast cells were pretreated with plasmolysis and carvacrol was encapsulated with both plasmolysed and non-plasmolysed cells. Carvacrol retained was 80.79% in the plasmolysed yeast cells and it was 90.43% in the non-plasmolysed yeast cell. The total amount of phenolic substances in the capsules was determined as to be 138.1 and 146.8 mg GAE/g for plasmolysed and non-plasmolysed yeast cells capsules respectively and the non-plasmolysed yeast capsules exhibited higher antiradical activity compared to the plasmolysed encapsules (PE). In addition, the encapsulation of carvacrol by yeast cells was proved by FTIR technique and structural properties were determined by scanning electron microscope.