Encapsulation of agarwood essential oil with maltodextrin and gum arabic

Agarwood is the commodity that has the highest economic value in the world, especially its oil. However, agarwood essential oils have a volatile compound component of almost 90%. To overcome this volatility, the agarwood oil can be changed into a solid dosage by encapsulation using maltodextrin and gum arabic through the freeze-drying method. Encapsulation is one solution that increases the efficiency of the packaging process and of the distribution of agarwood oil. Four different formulations of agarwood oil encapsulation were obtained that differed in the ratio of the active ingredient, agarwood oil, to the encapsulating materials, maltodextrin and gum arabic (MD-GA): F1 (2:10), F2 (5:10), F3 (10:10) and F4 (12:10). The highest loading capacity was 68.6%, obtained in the F2 sample. The surface oil content value of the four formulations ranged from 3% to 21%. The value of the encapsulation efficiency in the four formulations was between 82% and 96%. In the morphological test, all four formulations had pores on part of their surface. Overall, all samples showed good results for loading capacity, surface oil content percentage and encapsulation efficiency.