OBTENÇÃO E CARACTERIZAÇÃO DE MICROCÁPSULAS CONTENDO ÓLEO DE BOCAIUVA POR COACERVAÇÃO COMPLEXA

Abstract

In recent years, the search for natural products has grown significantly in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic areas. Bocaiuva Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd., is a fruit native to the Brazilian savannah of Sul-Mato-Grossense that has shown great scientific interest due to the oil from the bocaiuva pulp being rich in oleic acid, β-carotene and α- tocopherol, antioxidant compounds capable of preventing diseases related to oxidative stress. However, these active substances are photosensitive and undergo thermal degradation and oxidative, making their use for therapeutic purposes difficult. Microencapsulation by complex coacervation is a technology currently used with great potential for protecting the active substance, modulating its re-lease and masking unwanted sensory aspects, allowing greater stability of the formula among other advantages compared to older techniques for lipophilic compounds. Therefore, this work sought to develop microcapsules containing bocaiuva oil using the complex coacervation method. The formulations obtained were characterized in terms of size, which ranged from 32 µm to 105 µm, with an average diameter of 54 + 13.82 µm. The morphology presented a rounded shape, with welldefined walls and oil present in the core. The infrared absorption spectra show effectiveness for the active ingredient microencapsulation technique, which presented all functional groups and characteristic bands of the components used. The results obtained confirmed the presence of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols with 607.2 mg of gallic acid equivalents/100g of oil. The application of the technique was efficient, producing 97.12% of microcapsules with a yield of 93.94% of the encapsulated oil. Microencapsulation by complex coacervation demonstrated great potential to promote new scientific studies involving the bioactive compounds present in the oil, as well as favoring the use of microcapsules in future work with improved technologies that facilitate the stability of the formulation in different pharmaceutical forms.