Preparation And Characterization Of Coenzyme Q10 Microcapsules

Coenzyme Q10(CoQ10) is a kind of fat-soluble quinine compounds, which have many physiological functions, such as scavenging free radicals, anti-aging, enhancing immunity and so on. So it has great potential of application in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries. However, due to the properties of water-insoluble, sensitivity to light, temperature and oxygen, and slow and incomplete absorption in the human intestine, the application of CoQ10 is limited. In this paper, microencapsulation of CoQ10 was performed using both spray drying and complex coacervation, with the aim to solve the problem of limitation by poor dispersibility, storage stability and bioaccessibility.The main results are as follows:1.Microencapsules of CoQ10 was prepared by spray drying, using maltodextrin blended with pea protein isolate(PPI), skim milk powder(SMP), octenylsuccinic anhydride-modified starch(OSA), and soy protein isolate(SPI) respectively, as wall materials and emulsifiers. Results showed that all the microencapsulate exhibited high microencapsulation efficiency(ME) and good redispersion and/or dissolution behavior, and microencapsules with OSA-MD had the highest ME. The microencapsulation remarkably improved the UV- and heat- stability, as well as the in vitro bioaccessibility of CoQ10. The improvement distinctly varied with the type of applied emulsifiers, CoQ10 microcapsules with SPI-MD had better UV-stability than others, CoQ10 remaining percentage in which was more than 80 % after UV radiation for 3 hours.2. CoQ10 microencapsules were made by complex coacervation, encapsulated using SPI and different polysaccharides [sodium alginate(SA), soluble soybean polysaccharides(SSPS), chitosan(CS)] respectively. Results showed that microencapsules with SPI/CS exhibited best physicochemical properties, the highest coacervation yield efficiency and ME, best redispersibility and bioaccessibility; SPI/SA followed; and SPI/SA performed the worst. In the microencapsules with different ratio of SPI/SA, the microencapsules with ratio of 5:1 had the highest coacervation yield efficiency, and ratio of 3:1 had the best ME and bioaccessibility. Microfluidization of emulsion before coacervation reaction could greatly improve the ME, as well as redispersibility and bioaccessibility, but had no significant effect on the yield efficiency.In general, microencapsulation of coenzyme can greatly improve the dispersibility, storage stability and bioaccessibility, which is of important for the research and development, and application of CoQ10 as a nutritional supplement.