Utilization of different carrier agents for chlorophyll encapsulation: Characterization and kinetic stability study

Abstract

Chlorophyll-loaded nano/microparticles were fabricated using zein, casein, and whey protein isolate as carrier agents. Chlorophyll was adequately loaded in these wall materials with encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and particle size ranging from 83.6 to 96.3%, 0.8 to 5.5%, and 483 to 1020 nm respectively. As unveiled by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), chlorophyll existed in a non-crystalline state inside the different wall materials. The encapsulation techniques and different carrier agents were effective in protecting chlorophyll from acid pH (pH 2 to 6, chlorophyll retention; 39.3 to 97.8%) and light (chlorophyll retention; 41.6 to 65.5%) conditions. Employing the first-order model to investigate the thermal degradation kinetics of the different chlorophyll loaded nano/microparticles showed activation energy, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy change ranging from 49.6 to 70.1 kJ/mol, 93.4 to 100.0 kJ mol-1, 46.6 to 67.4 kJ mol-1, and -147.8 to -86.4 J mol-1 K-1, respectively.