Curcumin is a kind of natural pigment which has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor effects. But curcumin is difficult to dissolve in water, which greatly limits its application in the food industry. The protein as a certain emulsification agent could improve water solubility of curcumin. Polysaccharide could further improve the emulsion stability through the electrostatic and steric hinderance interaction with protein. In this paper, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and soybean protein isolate (SPI) were used to prepare curcumin emulsion. Dynamic light scattering, zeta-poten-tial and turbiscan techniques were used to characterize the stability of curcumin emulsion. The influence of MCC concentration on the physical, processing, and storage stabilities of SPI-curcumin emulsion was studied. The results showed that 1.2% of MCC and 2% of SPI could stabilize the curcumin emulsion, which had small droplet size, high zeta-poten-tial value, and good stability. The stability of curcumin emulsion to freeze-thawing was obviously improved. ©, 2015, Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology. All right reserved.
