Resistant maltodextrin as a shell material for encapsulation of naringin: Production and physicochemical characterization

Herein the potential of a relatively new water soluble fiber, resistant maltodextrin (RMD) to encapsulate grapefruit polyphenol, naringin, using spray drying was evaluated. Full factorial Design Of Experiments (DOE) for spray drying with two levels of fiber-naringin ratio and spray dryer inlet temperature was executed. Resulting powders were characterized with respect to particle size and morphology, crystallinity, thermal properties, moisture sorption and naringin aqueous solubility increase. A 60-80% encapsulation was achieved. Thermal and moisture sorption behaviors of these dispersions were found to be dominated by RMD. By varying fiber-naringin ratio and spray drying temperatures, naringin was able to disperse in amorphous form in RMD matrix, which led to 20-55% increase in aqueous solubility. Solubility enhancement was found to correlate positively with increasing fiber: naringin ratio and spray drying temperature due to multiple factors discussed in this study. In conclusion, fiber-polyphenol bicomponent nutraceutical was successfully developed based on a well-established encapsulation technology i.e. spray-drying.