Encapsulation and Release of Curcumin with the Mixture of Porous Rice Starch and Xanthan Gum

Abstract

Abstract The porous rice starch (PS) and Xanthan gum (XG) are mixed at different ratios to embed the curcumin. The morphology and physicochemical properties of the microcapsules are characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT‐IR); the release of curcumin is evaluated with a simulated gastric‐small intestine model. Results indicate that all the microcapsules present high encapsulation efficiency (>90%) with an average particle size of around 3.30 µm. The curcumin loaded in PS and PS/XG microcapsules forms inclusion complexes rather than simple physical mixtures. The release mechanism of curcumin from microcapsules fits first‐order ( R 2 > 0.974) and Higuchi ( R 2 > 0.969) models well in gastric and intestinal models, respectively, indicating that encapsulation of curcumin within PS/XG enables controlled release of curcumin. PS/XG wall materials show great potential for encapsulation and delivery of curcumin.