Valorization of passion fruit peel for potential application in food preservation: effect of carriers on quality of encapsulated powders

This study investigated the effect of using carriers to encapsulate purple passion fruit peel extract to develop a polyphenolic-rich powder that can be used as a natural food preservative. Passion fruit peels were dried at 50°C and extracted using 70% ethanol. Encapsulation was carried out using gum arabic (GA), maltodextrin (MT), and waxy starch (WS) as carrier agents before drying using a freeze dryer (-60°C and 0.3 mbar). The quality evaluation included an array of physicochemical, rheological, phytochemical, and antioxidant properties. GA had the highest hygroscopicity (2.13%) and bulk density (0.82 g cm^-3), while the powder formed using WS had the lowest. There were no significant differences in the total phenolic content among the three carriers. In addition, there were no significant differences in the antioxidant capacity of the encapsulated powders. It can be concluded that GA encapsulated powder has the greatest potential for application in food preservation.