Storage Stability and Antioxidant Activity of Encapsulated Carotenoid from Pumpkin Pulp

Abstract

The study was undertaken to microencapsulate carotenoid pigment extracted from pumpkin pulp by spray drying method. Carotenoid concentrate was used as the core substance with two wall materials namely, maltodextrin and maltodextrin + gum arabic. Higher amount of carotenoid was retained when the pulp was emulsified with maltodextrin + gum arabic, spray dried at an inlet air temperature of 200oC with atomizer pressure of 5 bar. Total carotenoid content was found to be maximum in Arjun variety of pumpkin (334.21 µg.g-1) and the colour values L*, a* and b* were 58.68, 25.25 and 68.86, respectively. The microencapsulated carotenoid powder characteristically possessed 2.91 % moisture, 250 µg. g-1 of total carotenoid content, 67.22 % encapsulation efficiency, 71 % solubility and 44.31 yellowness value (b). The stability of encapsulated carotenoids coated with maltodextrin and maltodextrin + gum Arabic (2:1) during 60 days storage was evaluated. Maltodextrin + gum arabic showed better encapsulation efficiency and helped to protect carotenoids during storage. Radical scavenging activity studies revealed significant antioxidant activity of microencapsulated powders after storage. The pumpkin pulp carotenoids microcapsules described in this study represents promising food additive for incorporation into functional foods due to antioxidant content.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.201802

Pages

415 - 419

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords