Gum Arabic, modified starch and sodium caseinate are some common carrier agents.

Discuss the advantages and limitations of each as carrier or encapsulating agents.

The carrier material used as carrier agent should meet many criteria, such as protection of active material, high solubility in water, molecular weight, glass transition, crystallinity, diffusibility, good film forming properties, good emulsifying properties, and low costs.

Gum Arabic: Gum Arabic consists of D-glucuronic acid, L-rhamnose, arabinogalactan (D-galactose and L-arabinose) and 5% protein. Gum Arabic is odorless, colorless, tasteless, so does not affect the odor, color, and taste of the system to which it is added. It is highly soluble in water and dissolves in both cold and hot water with concentrations up to 50 wt%. Gum Arabic has low viscosity, the highly branched structure of Arabic gum induces compact molecules with a relatively small hydrodynamic volume and as a consequence gum solutions become viscous only at very high concentrations. The concentration of wall material solution is important as it defines the thickness barrier film around core and also increases glass transition temperature of active compound. Low viscosity at high concentration of GA enables us to have high enough glass transition temperature while because of its low viscosity there is no problem in atomization and drying of particle. And it leads to stable microencapsulate with high sticky point and less deposition in spray dryer. The other major functional characteristic of gum Arabic is its ability to act as an emulsifier for essential oils and flavours. Its emulsification is because of the presence of protein moiety in its structure. It produces stable emulsions with most oils over a wide pH range. Gum Arabic shows good film forming properties. Presence of arabinogalactan fraction is responsible for this property. Good film forming property of gum Arabic is important in protect of core material from oxidation. Gum Arabic is compatible with most gums, starches and carbohydrates and proteins. However, its high cost, limited availability, and the presence of some impurities restricted use of gum Arabic.

Modified starch: Octenyl succinyl anhydride (n-OSA) are chemically modified starches that introduction of some side chains of lipophilic succinic acid results in their good emulsifying properties, which promotes good volatiles retention and high encapsulation efficiency. The chemically modified starches most closely reproduce the functional properties of gum Arabic. 1-Octenyl succinyl anhydride (n-OSA) starches are good emulsifying agent, which stabilize an emulsion through a number of possible mechanisms. N-OSA have high encapsulation efficiency. These modified starches are reported to be superior to gum acacia in emulsification properties and in retention of volatile flavors during spray drying. However, modified starches have some disadvantages, they are not considered natural for labeling purposes, often have an undesirable off-taste and do not afford good protection to oxidizable flavorings.

Sodium caseinate: Sodium caseinate is a good encapsulating agent because it has bland flavour, high solubility, low viscosity in solution and good emulsification and film-forming properties. Its high binding properties for the flavor compounds lead to high microencapsulation yield. Sodium caseinate can effectively prevent oxygen diffusion and consequently loss of volatile or oxidation of oxidable compounds during spray drying and during storage. However, denaturation of protein during spray drying may accure that affects the stability of wall. During spray-drying the temperature of the drying droplet increases slightly, while its water content decreases at the same time. Protein denaturation can occur only when two parameters are combined: high temperature and high water activity of the drying droplet. As a result, it is very difficult to predict the effect of spray-drying process on the stability of wall proteins.