The Effect of Alcohol on Bead Performance of Encapsulated Iron Using Deacetylated Glucomannan

Abstract

The success of encapsulation to protect iron from inhibitor degradation or oxidation depends on many factors including the excipient characteritics. Glucomannan, a neutral heterosaccharide, has a potential for the excipient. To improve the excipient performances, glucomannan is deacetylated to remove the acetyl groups by reacted with Na₂CO₃. This deacylated glucomannan is subject to bead formation after iron loading. The alcohol solution is commonly used in bead forming as dehydration medium during the encapsulation process. The objective of this work was to study the effect of alcohol on the bead performance of encapsulated iron using deacetylated glucomannan. The bead forming was conducted by dropping the excipient into ethanol and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) solution at various concentrations (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90%) and two condition temperatures (27-30° and 7-10°C). The encapsulation samples were subject to yield (YE) and efficiency of encapsulation (EE). The concentration of alcohol showed a positive impact on the yield and efficiency of encapsulation. Ethanol has a better performance compared with that of IPA regarding yield and efficiency of encapsulation. The optimum of yield bead formation (69.67%) and highest EE (66.80%) were obtained at 90% ethanol. Temperature of dehydration did not affect the YE and EE significantly.