Encapsulation of royal jelly

Royal jelly, which is very important for human nutrition and health and whose usage is increasing day by day, must be transported and stored under cold chain conditions as soon as it is harvested due to its sensitive structure. In this study, fresh royal jelly and royal jelly samples encapsulated using different coating materials were compared in terms of antioxidant, antimicrobial activity, and trans-10-hydroxy-2-decanoic acid (10-HDA) amounts and the produced capsules were characterized using FTIR, SEM and optical microscope. Sodium alginate, pectin and xanthan gum biopolymers were used as coating materials in encapsulation. The best results were achieved in capsules where sodium alginate and pectin were used together and it was seen that they trapped the core material at the best rate. Capsules with 88.35% encapsulation efficiency, 1.77 mm average particle diameter and 62.16% antioxidant activity value were obtained. These results also support 10-HDA analysis, which is accepted as an international standard for quality. The closest result to the 1.91% value found in pure royal jelly was obtained as 1.61% in capsules coated with sodium alginate and pectin. It was also determined that both pure royal jelly and encapsulated royal jelly exhibited antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. As a result, it was concluded that this valuable product, which is difficult to preserve and must be delivered with a cold chain, can be preserved with a different method while preserving its biochemical activities and a new product can be obtained.