Journal of Microencapsulation 2008-05-01

Enzymatic hydrolysis of organic-core microcapsules to produce aqueous-core microcapsules.

Veronique Breguet, Vojislav Vojinovic, Urs Von Stockar, Ian W Marison

Index: J. Microencapsul. 25(3) , 179-86, (2008)

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Abstract

This paper describes the development of a new method to obtain aqueous-core microcapsules from organic-core capsules. The direct production of microcapsules, using tripropionin as organic material, followed by the hydrolysis of the core by a lipase was investigated. The enzymatic study showed that the enzyme obeyed a Michaelis-Menten mechanism and conditions for optimal activity were pH 7.5, 25-37 degrees C and 0% NaCl. Under these conditions, incubation of tripropionin-alginate microcapsules in a buffer containing the enzyme successfully produced aqueous-core capsules with reduced accumulation of alginate in the core in approximately 3 h.