Production of omega-3's microcapsules by coacervation method

Omega-3, including α-linoleic acid, EPA and 3-DHA, is very important for human health and risk reduction of cardiovascular diseases. Adding omega-3 microcapsules to foodstuff such as milk and juice can increase shelf life and stability of omega-3 against oxygen. The gelatin/gum Arabic was used for encapsulating H. molitrix oil and the capsules were prepared by complex coacervation. The effect of stirring speed and ionic strength by Nacl were investigated. Different concentrations of NaCl were added to evaluate final size. The mean particle size were 537.2±0.8 μm, 84.4±0.5 μm, 12.9±0.4 μm, 8.2±0.5 μm and 4±0.7 μm at the homogenization stirring speed of 100, 300, 500, 750 and 1000 rpm, respectively. Mean particle size of 3.3±0.2 was achieved by 0.1 molar NaCl. This study showed that the best conditions for preparing microcapsules are at 1000 rpm of stirring speed by adding 0.1 M NaCl. These microcapsules at the homogenizer instrument with stirring speed of 15000 rpm, 30000 rpm, 45000 rpm, 60000 rpm and 75000 rpm were stable.