Extracción y microencapsulado de carotenoides con actividad antioxidante a partir de Pouteria sapota

Abstract

It is well known that carotenoids are compounds that have a high antioxidant power and their contribution to the human diet has great health benefits. The present research work focused on the extraction, microencapsulation and analysis of carotenoids present in mamey zapote (Pouteria sapota) for its antioxidant properties, based on an experimental surface design, so it was determined that the optimal conditions were 30 minutes with a vegetable-solvent mass ratio of 1:67 using 96 percent ethanol as solvent at a temperature of 70 Celsius degrees. To preserve the carotenoids against external factors, the microencapsulation process was carried out by the spray drying method, with a polymeric mixture of maltodextrin and gum arabic in equal proportions. The efficiency of the microencapsulation process was analyzed by FT-IR infrared spectrophotometry, the spectra obtained demonstrated the protection of the polymer mixture to antioxidants. The antioxidant activity was determined by an in vitro assay by the DPPH method, obtaining equivalent Trolox values of 253,21 micromoll-1 for the concentrated extract and 385,19 µmoll-1 for the microencapsulation. In addition, the in vivo antioxidant activity was analyzed through the Saccharomyces cerevisiae growth curve of the microencapsulate at a concentration of 50 mg for ml with maximum absorbances of 1,259 and 1,335 for 3 mmoll-1 and 0,5 mmoll-1 hydrogen peroxide respectively compared to vitamin C as an antioxidant model.