Microencapsulation of tannase by chitosan-alginate complex coacervate membrane: synthesis of antioxidant propyl gallate in biphasic media

Tannase microencapsulated by a chitosan-alginate complex coacervate membrane has been used for synthesis of the food additive antioxidant, propyl gallate. Matrix experiments using standard L9 orthogonal array were used to evaluate the effects of the microencapsulation process on the synthesis of propyl gallate in biphasic media. The statistical analysis of signal-to-noise ratio and decomposition of variance (ANOVA) were performed to estimate the optimum levels and determine the relative magnitude of the effects of the three control factors which were chitosan, alginate and hardening time. The optimized capsule for synthesis was formed by dropwise addition of a 15 kg m(-3) chitosan and 20 kg m(-3) CaCl2 solution into a 14 kg m(-3) alginate solution, stirred for 20 min, then hardened for 30 min in 20 kg m(-3) CaCl2. (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.