Developing natural microcapsules by encapsulating peptides for preserving Zanthoxylum Bungeanum

Natural edible microcapsules, were developed to improve the shelf life of Zanthoxylum bungeanum. Antimicrobial peptides, extracted from seeds of Sichuan pepper corn by ultrasound and microwave assisted extraction were encapsulated with nisin using water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) microencapsulation technique. Prepared microcapsules exhibited maximum encapsulation efficiency (ω %) of 30.20 at 3:1 ratio of extracted protein (EP) to gum Arabic (GA). After characterization, microcapsules were applied to Sichuan peppers by coating them during 10-days storage. Meanwhile, antimicrobial activity, total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC) and radical scavenging activity (%) of treated pepper samples were evaluated; demonstrating that S3 and S4 microcapsules provided maximum antimicrobial activity (89.75 and 81.33 %), TPC (543.56 ± 3.87 and 481.40 ± 6.54 GAE/g), TFC (266.02 ± 2.64 QE/g and 306.96 ± 3.87 QE/g) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (78.06 ± 2.87 and 76.52 ± 1.67 %), respectively. Hence, S3 and S4 micro-capsules can be successfully employed as edible coating packaging to improve quality and shelf life of pepper.