B. Abbastabar - Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P. O. Box: ۱۴۱۱۵-۳۳۶, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
M. H. Azizi - Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, P. O. Box: ۱۴۱۱۵-۳۳۶, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
S. R. Nabavi - Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Islamic Republic of Iran.

In this research, the potential of the electrospraying technique was used for encapsulation of curcumin in natural polymers such as Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) and mixture of WPI/β-CycloDextrin (β-CD). The encapsulated particles were physicochemically characterized and curcumin release profile was evaluated. At WPI concentration of ۲۵%, more uniform particles were formed and most of them were smaller than ۰.۷ µm in diameter. The encapsulation efficiency of curcumin in WPI and WPI/β-CD solutions was determined as ۴۵.۴% and ۵۳.۶%, respectively. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and ThermoGravimetric Analysis (TGA) of the obtained encapsulated curcumin revealed that WPI and WPI/β-CD polymers could not increase thermal stability of curcumin. Encapsulated curcumin had a better stability than pure curcumin at acidic and alkaline conditions, and the release of curcumin after ۷ hours was lower than ۴۰% with the sustained mode in buffer solution conditions (pH= ۷.۴).

Differential scanning calorimetry, Encapsulation, Thermal stability, Thermo-gravimetric analysis.