Microencapsulation of L-Ascorbic Acid by Spray Drying Using Sodium Alginate as Wall Material

Abstract

L-ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin (vitamin C) widely used as an additive in foods and cos-metics. It has high instability against certain environmental factors; the main cause of its deteri-oration is oxidation. Microencapsulation is an effective protection technique of L-ascorbic acid from its degradation reactions. This work is focused on the encapsulation of L-ascorbic acid by spray drying technique using sodium alginate as wall material. The microcapsules morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the encapsulation efficiency was deter-mined by spectrophotometric analysis. Results showed that encapsulation efficiency was of 93.48% and after 30 days was of 92.55%; differences were not significant, so that the stability of L-ascorbic acid was not affected. Encapsulation yields obtained were low, at around 30%, but the microcapsules morphology obtained is spherical.