Encapsulation of resveratrol using Maillard conjugates and membrane emulsification

Resveratrol is a stilbene phenolic associated with health-promoting properties such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and chemoprevention. Due to its chemical instability and low water solubility, microencapsulation represents a good alternative to provide better results when employing resveratrol as a nutraceutical ingredient. The main purpose of our work was to use low shear membrane emulsification to produce resveratrol-loaded emulsions of low polydispersity and integrate this process to spray drying to produce a powdered product. Resveratrol was dispersed with palm oil in a continuous phase obtained via Maillard reaction. We evaluated the influence of process conditions and phases composition on emulsions properties and performed the characterization of the spray-dried powder. Emulsions droplet size and span decreased as shear stress was increased. Higher dispersed phase fluxes provided increased droplet size polydispersity. Process conditions were set on 60.0 Pa shear stress and 70 L m(-2)h(-1) of dispersed phase flux, obtaining emulsions with mean diameter around 30 mu m and span of 0.76. Despite this relatively high droplet size of the infeed emulsions, the spray drying process resulted in particles with high encapsulation efficiency (97.97 +/- 0.01%), and water content (similar to 3.6%) and diameter (similar to 10.2 mu m) similar to particles obtained from fine emulsions in previously reported works.