Formulation of encapsulating material for packing ginger essential oil (Zingiber officinale Rosc) in soft capsules

Abstract

Essential oil encapsulation has great potential applications and valuable development prospects in food, functional food and pharmaceutical industries. This study has shown the results of the chemical composition of ginger essential oil (GEO) (Zingiber officinale Rosc) and the best formula to encapsulate ginger essential oil without heating. The optimal formula was determined based on the parameters including the amount, external diameter, strength, encapsulation efficiency and oil-packed volume of ginger essential oil beadlets. Ginger essential oil was extracted by the steam distillation and its chemical composition was analyzed by GC–MS. The method of creating beadlets was manually carried out by single core droplets extrusion device. The main constituents of ginger essential oil were: eucalyptol 29.66%, camphene 15.33% and α – zingiberene 8.91%. The optimal encapsuling formula was a mixture of sodium alginate of 1.4%, iodine carrageenan of 0.5%, xanthan gum of 0.3% and agar of 0.1%. This formula gives the expected beadlets of ginger essential oil with an average external diameter of 5.3 ± 0.1 cm and the encapsulation efficiency of 33 ± 2.56% after 13 hours of drying at 35°C.