Suppressive effect of alkyl ferulate on the oxidation of microencapsulated linoleic acid

The oxidation processes of linoleic acid mixed with ferulic acid or the 1-pentyl, 1 -hexyl and 1-heptyl ferulates, encapsulated with gum arabic or maltodextrin, were studied. The alkyl ferulates had a higher antioxidative effect than ferulic acid, but there was no significant difference among the three alkyl ferulates. Suppression of the oxidation by 1 -hexyl ferulate or ferulic acid was more effective at the higher molar ratios of the additive to linoleic acid. The processes were analyzed using the Weibull equation to evaluate the rate constant, k, and the shape constant, n. Although the k values for linoleic acid encapsulated with gum arabic were lower than that with maltodextrin, the suppressive effect of the alkyl ferulates was more remarkable for linoleic acid encapsulated with maltodextrin than with gum arabic because of the non-antioxidative ability of maltodextrin. Because the partition coefficient of the alkyl ferulates was much greater than that of ferulic acid, most of the alkyl ferulates would be located in the linoleic acid phase of the microcapsules and effectively suppress the oxidation of linoleic acid.