Study on the stability of β-carotene microencapsulated with pinhão (Araucaria angustifolia seeds) starch.

Native and hydrolyzed pinhão starches were used as coating materials for β-carotene microencapsulation by freeze-drying. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the stability of β-carotene encapsulated under three different conditions: in the presence of ultraviolet light at 25±2 °C, in the dark at 25±2 °C and in the dark at 10.0±0.2 °C. The color of the samples was also analyzed. Microcapsules prepared with native starch showed the lowest stability during storage. In contrast, microcapsules encapsulated with 12 dextrose equivalent (DE) hydrolyzed starch exhibited the highest stability. First-order kinetic and Weibull models were applied to describe the degradation of β-carotene over time. The R(2) values of the Weibull model were greater than those of the first-order kinetic model. Moreover, multivariate analyses (principal component and cluster analyses) were also conducted.