Encapsulation of soursop (Annona muricata) fruit pulp in calcium alginate hydrogels

LÓPEZ CÓRDOBA A.F.; NAVARRO A.S.; MORALES VALENCIA E.M.; PACHECO VALDERRAMA M.M.

AGRONOMIA COLOMBIANA

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

Lugar: Bogotá; Año: 2016 vol. 34 p. 1315 - 1318

0120-9965

Soursop (Annona muricata), so known as guanábana, constitutes a rich source of bioactive compounds which would have great potential to develop functional foods. In the current work, alginate hydrogels added of different concentrations of soursop pulp (5, 10 and 20 wt.%) were obtained by ionic gelation. Hydrogels showed diameters around 4 mm and high circularity. After drying, the systems exhibited values of water content between 8 and 10% and water activity between 0.3 and 0.4. Moreover, micrographs obtained by scanning electron microscopy showed that the incorporation of soursop pulp at 20% led to better preservation of the morphology of the beads. These preliminary results suggest that the calcium alginate beads containing soursop pulp would have useful applications as healthy food ingredients.