Chemical Modification of Gum Arabic and Its Application in the Encapsulation of Cymbopogon citratus Essential Oil

Sodium trimetaphosphate (STMP) is an effective crosslinking agent of starch and can be used in other polysaccharides for promoting changes in their physical and chemical characteristics. In this study, gum arabic was modified with different STMP concentrations and evaluated as the changes in the physical and physicochemical characteristics. Further, modified gum arabic was evaluated by encapsulation efficiency (EE) of Cymbopogon citratus essential oil. A lower viscosity was observed with the increase of the STMP concentration. Higher concentrations of STMP decreased the water amount retained in the modified gum arabic. The increasing of the crosslinking degree causes a decrease in particle size. The EE of modified gum arabic with 6% STMP was 97%, whereas for the unmodified gum arabic was 85%. The high efficiency encapsulation of the essential oil is a positive result of physicochemical changes in the gum arabic crosslinking. (c) 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015, 132, 41519.