Design of experiments for microencapsulation applications: A review

•Nowadays, microencapsulation is a high-tech approach for the global market.•The most important industrial sectors for microencapsulation applications are pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries.•Design of experiments is a powerful tool in microencapsulation research field.•Response surface methodology theoretical concepts allow to optimize microencapsulation procedures.•Applications of design of experiments in microencapsulation research areas are widely used in pharmaceutical and food research.

Microencapsulation techniques have been intensively explored by many research sectors such as pharmaceutical and food industries. Microencapsulation allows to protect the active ingredient from the external environment, mask undesired flavours, a possible controlled release of compounds among others. The purpose of this review is to provide a background of design of experiments in microencapsulation research context. Optimization processes are required for an accurate research in these fields and therefore, the right implementation of micro-sized techniques at industrial scale. This article critically reviews the use of the response surface methodologies in pharmaceutical and food microencapsulation research areas. A survey of optimization procedures in the literature, in the last few years is also presented.

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