Stabilization of Moisture Sorption in Spray-Dried Bioactive Compounds by Using Novel Fibre Carriers to Crystallize the Powders
Natural fruit fibres have been used when spray drying a bioactive material, hibiscus extract, which contains significant amounts of anthocyanin. The extracts, when spray dried alone, produce powders that adsorb so much moisture that they deliquesce, forming liquid droplets in storage. The use of these fibres has demonstrated that the resulting extract and fibre powders do not deliquesce and reach a stable moisture state as powders. This situation of greater stability in the extract and fibre powders, regarding moisture sorption, than the spray dried extracts alone, may be due to the crystallization in the final extract and fibre powders caused by the fibres. Using this crystallization process to stabilize a bioactive extract in this way appears to be a novel process.