Utilization of different carrier agents for chlorophyll encapsulation: Characterization and kinetic stability study

Chlorophyll-loaded nano/microparticles were fabricated using zein, casein, and whey protein isolate as carrier agents. Chlorophyll was adequately loaded in these wall materials with encapsulation efficiency, loading ca-pacity, and particle size ranging from 83.6 to 96.3%, 0.8 to 5.5%, and 483 to 1020 nm respectively. As unveiled by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), chlorophyll existed in a non-crystalline state inside the different wall materials. The encapsulation techniques and different carrier agents were effective in protecting chlorophyll from acid pH (pH 2 to 6, chlorophyll retention; 39.3 to 97.8%) and light (chlorophyll retention; 41.6 to 65.5%) conditions. Employing the first-order model to investigate the thermal degradation kinetics of the different chlorophyll loaded nano/microparticles showed activation energy, Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy change ranging from 49.6 to 70.1 kJ/mol, 93.4 to 100.0 kJ mol(-1), 46.6 to 67.4 kJ mol(-1), and-147.8 to-86.4 J mol(-1) K-1, respectively.

Automated summary

This study fabricated chlorophyll-loaded nano/microparticles using different protein carriers and found that these particles could effectively protect chlorophyll from acid pH and light conditions.