Analysis, Microencapsulation And Properties Of Squalene From Seeds Of Camellia Oleifera Abel

Squalene is a natural bioactivity triterpene, but its poor oxidation stability sets a limit tobe widely used. Due to the decreasing of squalene resource, it becomes more and moresignificant to improve its storage stability and find new squalene resource. In this research,Camellia oleifera Abel. was studied as an important source of squalene. Microencapsulationtechnology was applied to improve the storage stability of squalene, and two methodsincluding ultrasonic spraying/freeze-drying method and solvent evaporation were introduced torealize squalene microencapsulation.The squalene content in seeds of Camellia oleifera Abel. varys to its origin. The seeds ofCamellia oleifera Abel. from five different places including Tianlin County in GuangxiProvince, Huanjiang County in Guangxi Province, Donglan County in Guangxi Province,Napo County in Guangxi Province, Zhuzhou City in Hunan Province were studied. The resultsindicated that the oil extraction rate of the seeds of Camellia oleifera Abel. from Zhuzhou Citywas the highest, which reached to44.36%. The squalene of camellia oil from Tianlin Countywas up to0.52‰, meanwhile, the squalene content reached to3.46%after saponification.Gelatin, maltodextrin, sucrose ester and arabic gum were used as the shell in the processof squalene microencapsulation by ultrasonic spraying/freeze-drying method. The ultrasonictechnique was applied in the process of emulsification and microencapsulation. The suitablecondition for ultrasonic emulsification was at28kHz frequency and20min running time. Theoptimum ratio of the shell materials was gelatin3.0%, arabic gum4.0%, maltodextrin8.0%and sucrose ester0.8%. Under this condition, the retention rate reached to99.5%. As thefreeze drying applied in the process of microencapsulation, the utilization of core material waseffectively improved, and the problem of unadaptability to temperature sensitive material wasavoided by this method comparing with other ordinary ways.Ethylcellulose microcapsules containing squalene were fabricated by solvent evaporationmethod. The optimum condition of microencapsulation was that Polysorbate-80was used as the surfactant, the ratio of surfactant was0.5%, the core/shell ratio was1:1, and theevaporation solvent was ethyl acetate. Under the optimal conditions, the entrapment efficiencywas60.31%±0.55%and the drug-loading rate was32.76%±0.30%, the mean diameterD[3.2] was19.1m, the polydispersity index was0.64. The microcapsules were spherical inshape and have smooth surface. The thermal stability was well.This study laid the foundation for the theory and application of the squalene getting fromplants and the further processing of camellia oil. It provided the guidance for the protection andutilization of bioactive substances.