Extraction of passion fruit seed oil and microencapsulation in poly(ε-caprolactone).

The processing of passion fruit juice generates a large amount of by-products, which are seeds and shells, which are usually discarded becoming an industrial waste problem. It represents significant waste amounts, turning it a scientific and technological interesting resource to add value. The passion fruit seed oil has a wide range of application in industry, but it presents a high content of unsaturated fatty acids, being susceptible to oxidative rancidity. An alternative to avoid the exposure of the oil to atmospheric air, that leads to its oxidation, and increase its stability is its microencapsulation. In this work the passion fruits seed oil was extracted with hexane and the resulting oil was microencapsulated by emulsification solvent evaporation with poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL). The influence of the experimental conditions, stirring rate and oil amount, was evaluated on the final average diameter (Dp) and size distribution (Polydispersion index, PDI) of the microcapsules by Students T-test with 95% of confidence. The interaction of the polymeric shell with the encapsulated oil was evaluated by Spectroscopy Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The yield of oil extraction obtained was equal to 29.5%. Microcapsules with 137.4 µm were obtained when 500 RPM of stirring rate was used. A significant difference was observer in Dp between the blank microparticles (no oil) and microcapsules at 500 RPM. When the stirring rate was increased to 1,000 RPM any significant difference was observed in the Dp nor in PDI to microcapsules. It was possible to observe interactions between the polymeric shell and the passion fruit oil by FTIR spectra. DOI: 10.14685/rebrapa.v5i2.151