Improving stability of vitamin B12 (Cyanocobalamin) using microencapsulation by spray chilling technique

Vitamin-B12 or cyanocobalamin is an essential micronutrient, so it must be supplied by diet. However, vitamin-B12 is found just in foods derived from animals and it is sensitive of many factors. Due to the unrelenting increase of people with deficiency in vitamin-B12 and easy degradation of this vitamin when subjected to adverse conditions, the aim of this research was to produce solid lipid microparticles (SLM) loaded with vitamin-B12 using the spray chilling technique. It was produced 6 SLM (with 0.1 and 1% vitamin and 0, 2.5 and 5% of lecithin) that were analyzed for optical and scanning electron microscopy, size and particles size distribution, water activity, instrumental color, X-ray diffraction, yield and encapsulation efficiency, release profile, besides free and encapsulated vitamin stability for 120 days. It was reported that the SLM presented a spherical shape and smooth surfaces, medium size values varying from 13.28 to 26.99 μm. The yield and encapsulation efficiency values within the range of 80.7 to 99.7% and from 76.7 to 101.1%, respectively. The encapsulation promoted better protection of vitamin-B12 (>91.1% for all formulations after 120 days of storage) when compared to the free one (75.2%). In addition, it was observed a good effect of the presence of soya lecithin in formulations; it promoted a more controlled release of vitamin-B12 in fluids and also shown better stability results. The spray chilling encapsulation technique proved to be a promising alternative, since it protected vitamin-B12 without the necessity of using high temperatures or organic solvents to encapsulate it, besides having a low cost.