microencapsulation of enriched extracts of two satureja species by spray drying, evaluation of the controlled release mechanism and cytotoxicity

Background: phenolic compounds are one of the main groups of secondary metabolites responsible for multiple biological and pharmacological properties that play a vital role in improving human health quality. encapsulation by spray dryer creates protection toward the phenolic compounds as an efficient way for increasing product performance. methods: the phenolic compounds of satureja khuzistanica jamzad (skh) and s. rechingeri jamzad (srh) were enriched based on adsorbent resin column chromatography and the enrichment index was confirmed by hplc-uv analysis. gum arabic, carboxylated chitosan, and pectin with the optimum percentage of 1% w/w used to encapsulate skh and srh by the spray drying technique. results: encapsulation yield was 38.18 – 59.00 %, particle size ranged 2.278 - 4.689 μm, and release time was between 4.08 - 82.08 min. the gum arabic-based capsules showed the fastest and pectin-based revealed the slowest release time. the best kinetic model explained a release mechanism was korsmeyer model. anomalous transport was observed from all formulas except skh-gum arabic (case-i transport), skh-pectin, and srh-carboxylated-chitosan (super case- ii transport). the cytotoxic activity of encapsulate skh’s revealed reducing the viability of ags evaluated by the mtt compared with srh’s. conclusion: encapsulation by spray drying has proven to be a promising technique to improve the bioavailability, release time, and mechanism of functional polyphenolic compounds as medicines, food supplements, and food additives.