Effect of Arrowroot Nano Starch Preparation Methods on the Characteristics of Temulawak Oleoresin Microcapsules

Abstract Active compounds of temulawak often have some disadvantages such as barely dissolve in water, unstable in alkaline and acidic conditions, that need to be overcome by coating with the starch matrix. Starch nanoparticles precipitated with alcohol can serve as coating material because it has a helical hole and the porous structure. The research objective was to determine the effect of starch nanoparticles coating materials on the characteristics of temulawak microcapsule. The treatments tested included types of coating/starch matrix resulted from two different preparations of arrowroot starch nanoparticles namely by butanol and ethanol precipitation with two degrees of hydrolysis. The parameters observed consist of yield, encapsulation efficiency (EE), drug loading (DL), morphology (SEM and TEM), particle size distribution and polydispersity index (PDI), FTIR, and antioxidant activity. The results showed that the yield of microcapsules ranged from 42.91 to 58.31%, with EE from 48.69 to 69.59% and DL from 19.02 to 28.96%. Microcapsule size ranged from micro to nano size having 200 nm in average with rounded shape, and polydispersity index from 0.69 to 0.94. The antioxidant activity showed that microcapsule coated with butanol precipitation starch matrix was higher than that of ethanol precipitation. The FTIR analysis showed a binding of the active ingredient (curcumin) in the matrix as seen with the new absorption peak at a wavelength of 1510 cm−1 as well as two new peaks at 1750 cm−1 and 3730 cm−1.