Studies of flavor encapsulation by agents produced from modified sago and tapioca starches

The efficiency of sage and tapioca starch stearates for encapsulating lemon oil were studied and compared to the efficiency of gum arabic. The stearat es were prepared by esterification of stearic acid with starch. To accompli sh esterification, the stearic acid was first coated on the surface of the starch granules. Then the coated granules were heated at 150 degreesC for 2 h to obtain sage or tapioca starch stearate (SSS or TSS). SSS or TSS can b e prepared as ready-to-use products in the form of pregelatinized-hydrolyze d sage or tapioca starch stearate (PGHSSS or PGHTSS). The resulting modifie d starches were used for encapsulation of lemon oil. The lemon oil encapsul ating efficiency for SSS with DS 0.009 and 0.014 were close to that of gum arabic, whereas the encapsulating efficiency for PGHSSS with DS 0.0052 and 0.016 were higher than that of the gum arabic. The TSS and PGHTSS provided encapsulating efficiencies lower than the gum arabic.