Comparison of alpha-tocopherol microparticles produced with different wall materials: pea protein a new interesting alternative.

Alpha-tocopherol is a radical chain breaking antioxidant that can protect the integrity of tissues and play an important role in life process. Microparticles containing alpha-tocopherol were produced by spray drying technique using pea protein (PP), carboxymethylcellulose(CMC) and mixtures of these materials with maltodextrin (PP-M and CMC-M) as wall materials. The microparticles produced were characterised as regards the core retention (high performance liquid chromatography), the morphology (scanning electron microscopy) and size distribution (laser diffraction). The retention of alpha-tocopherol within all microparticles was above 77%. They showed a spherical shape and roughness at varied degrees. Their mean particles size remained below 7 microm, and the smallest sizes were found in PP and CMC-M microparticles. The results obtained in this work show that the pea protein use for alpha-tocopherol microencapsulation is a promising system for further application in food.