MICROSTRUCTURE OF ENCAPSULATED SOURSOP (Annona muricata L.

)
LEAVES EXTRACT BY SPRAY DRYING
Oscar B. Jordán1; Patricia, Glorio2; Leslie V. Vidal3
1Cordon Bleu University, Lima, Peru; 2National Agrarian University La Molina, Lima, Peru; 3University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile.

INTRODUCTION
The current technologies of delivering bioactive compounds for the
food industry do not properly ensure their availability and functionality.
In the last years, the consumption of Annona muricata leaves has
been extended due to its anticancer properties attributed to
phytochemicals like acetogenins, alkaloids and phenolic compounds.
One of the most promising technologies that can solve the above-
mentioned difficulties is microencapsulation, which implies the
trapping and controlled releasing of bioactive compounds usually
sensitive to environmental factors. Among the available
microencapsulation techniques there is spray drying, during this
process small drops of a liquid containing the interest compounds are
turned into dry particles as the solvent is evaporated, but this process
can induce microstructural changes that causes a further degradation
of the encapsulated compound. This work aimed to investigate the
microstructure of encapsulated soursop (Annona muricata L.) leaves
Figure 1. Soursop (Annona muricata L.) leaves conditioning.
extract by spray drying in relation to type and concentration of the
encapsulant.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Extraction
Extraction was performed using grinded dry leaves (Fig. 1) macerated at 70 °C for
30 min with a hydroalcoholic solution (20 % Ethanol) in a relation of 1 to 36 (w/v).
The extract (EXT) was further centrifuged at 2500 rpm for 30 min.
When using GA, a higher quantity of rough particles is observed (Fig. 4), due to the
rapid shrinkage occurring in the early stages of drying as solvent diffuses through the
wall (Rosenberg et al., 1985; Walton, 2000). Tolun et al. (2016) indicate that particles
with rough surfaces are more sensitive to oxidation reactions compared to those with
a smooth surface because of their greater surface areas.

Microencapsulation A B
The supernatant was mixed with gum arabic (GA) and maltodextrin (MD) at 5 and
10 % and then the mixtures were homogenized (Ultra Turrax®) for 5 min at 10000
and 15000 rpm (22±2°C). Subsequently the solvent was evaporated using a spray
dryer (Büchi B-290) with a feed nozzle diameter of 1 mm at 140 °C with a feeding
rate of 10 mL/min. A general illustration of the resulting powder is showed in Fig. 2.
E
Morphological characterization and
particle size

Structural characteristics of the powders

were observed using a SEM Microscope
C D
(JEOL JSM-6380 LV), with an increasing
magnification ranging from 1200 to 20000x.
Particle size was defined by measuring the
diameter of more than 650 particles from
SEM photographs.
Figure 2. Appareance of the
microencapsulated extract

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Figure 3 shows the original morphological characteristics of the admixtures (the sole
extract, and the encapsulants), each component has a unique morphology related to
its chemical nature and to the process involved during its fabrication. It is useful to
employ well characterized encapsulants in terms of microstructural properties for a
better understanding of transformation of liquids into fluidized dried solids.
A B C consequently, there is a central void which is characteristic of a multiple core structure
Figure 4. Soursop leaves extract microcapsules using gum arabic (A and B) and
maltodextrin (C and D) at 5 and 10%, respectively.
Using both encapsulants (GA and MD) fragmented particles were obtained (Fig. 4e);
however, the incidence of fragmentation decreased as concentration increased.
Likewise, it is probable that the active principles had been incorporated into the wall;
(Akhavan Mahdavi et al., 2016). It should be noted that a low ratio of fragmented
particles is a good indicator of the encapsulation process, this condition ensures a
higher protection of the inner compounds.

CONCLUSIONS
Spray drying technology enabled to obtain microcapsules from soursop leaves extract
employing gum arabic and maltodextrin as encapsulants; from morphological analysis, it
was found that the most suitable encapsulant was maltodextrin at 10%, since the
sphericity index was higher as the encapsulant concentration increased, whereas
fragmentation decreased.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Figure 3. Microphotographs of spray dried soursop leaves extract (A), gum
arabic (B), and maltodextrin (C). This research is a partial result of an internship financed by Alianza del Pacífico.

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