Development of antioxidant sodium alginate gel beads encapsulating curcumin/gum Arabic/gelatin microcapsules

In this study, we developed a sodium alginate gel bead (Sbs-Mcs-Cur) encapsulating curcumin microcapsules (Mcs-Cur) to protect the bioaccessibility of curcumin in the gastrointestinal tract and enhance its edible efficiency. Structural characterization indicated that curcumin was successfully encapsulated in Sbs-Mcs-Cur. Antioxidant capacity experiments demonstrated that Sbs-Mcs-Cur successfully eliminated over 90% of DPPH and ABTS free radicals. The release behavior of Sbs-Mcs-Cur was evaluated using a simulated gastrointestinal model. Release rate in vitro measurements showed that Sbs-Mcs-Cur had a low release rate (<0.5%) in simulated gastric fluid (SGF), while more than 97.2% were released in simulated intestinal fluid (SIF), indicating that Sbs-Mcs-Cur could mitigate inhibition of microcapsule solubilization caused by the gastric environment, and effectively enhancing the release rate of curcumin in the intestine. These present findings demonstrated that the sodium alginate hydrogel system equipped with gum Arabic/gelatin microcapsules could be used as an ideal carrier for delivering hydrophobic bioactive substances like curcumin in functional food systems.