Microencapsulation of rosemary essential oil: characterization of particles

Abstract

This study evaluated the influence of wall material concentration (10–30%), inlet temperature (135–195°C), and feed rate (0.5–1.0 L · h−1) on the properties of rosemary oil microencapsulated by spray-drying, with gum arabic as carrier. Powder recovery, surface oil, oil retention, and hygroscopicity varied from 17.25%–33.96%, 0.03%–0.15%, 7.15%–47.57%, and 15.87%–18.90%, respectively. The optimized conditions were determined to be a wall material concentration of 19.3%, an inlet air temperature of 171°C, and a feed flow rate of 0.92 L · h−1. At this condition, particles presented no fissures and the compositions of pure and microencapsulated oil were similar. The sorption isotherms could be described by the GAB model.