Browsing by Author "Jayasinghe, J. M. H. M."

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    Encapsulating cinnamon bark oil in chitosan using ionotropic gelation and their characterization
    (Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2024) Jayasinghe, J. M. H. M.; Shivanthini, K. D. C.; Wickramarachchi, S. R.
    Cinnamon bark oil (CBO) is well known for its antimicrobial properties. Hence, it has the potential to be used as a food preservative, an insecticide, etc. However, the direct application of CBO in their free native forms is limited due to some drawbacks like high volatility, changing texture and flavor etc. Therefore, encapsulation is a widely used technique to overcome the drawbacks of direct application of oil and to enhance the different potential functionalities of cinnamon bark oil. Encapsulation is a process to entrap active components within a thin coating. This study aims at encapsulating CBO using the ionotropic gelation technique. It is a technique that is used to synthesize micro- and nanoparticles based on electrostatic interactions between ions with different charges. In this technique, sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) was used as the cross-linker, and chitosan was used as the polymer to formulate CBO-containing micro capsules. CBO was characterized using GC-MS. The micro encapsulation parameters were optimized by varying the amounts of polymer (1–3%), cinnamon bark oil (1–3 g), and STTP (0.5–1%). The effect of varying process parameters on the encapsulation efficiencies (EE%), oil loading capacity (LC%), and oil release profile were determined by weightbased calculation. The formulated capsules were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The GC-MS analysis of CBO showed the presence of cinnamaldehyde (74.615%) as the major compound. The SEM images showed that the synthesized capsules are spherical in shape with a smooth surface. Their size varied between 100 and 1000 nm. Varying the process parameters has a direct impact on the EE% and LC%. The optimum formulation for cinnamon oil micro capsules is chitosan 3 g, CBO 3 g, STTP, 1% with an EE of 85.31% and a LC of 16.52%. The oil release rate increased with time, according to the oil release profile. These findings indicate that CBO can be successfully encapsulated within chitosan using the ionotropic gelation method.
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    Evaluation of nutritional composition of peel and seeds of Flacourtia indica fruit
    (Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Jayasinghe, J. M. H. M.; Weerasooriya, M. K. B.
    Flacourtia indica is an endangered plant species with high medicinal value. The fruit has been reported as a valuable source of natural products that can treat various diseases and functional disorders. It is commonly called Ramontchi, Governor’s plum, Batoko plum, Madagascar plum and Indian plum. In Sri Lanka, it is called “Uguressa”. The nutritional content of non-edible portion (peel and seeds) is so far not reported. Hence, analysing the nutritional composition of this non-edible portion is targeted in the current study. We determined moisture, ash, lipid, fibre, protein, carbohydrate and calorie contents of peel and seeds. The results showed that the percentage of moisture, lipid, ash, fibre, protein, and carbohydrate contents of the peel powder were, 15.20±0.267, 9.277±0.165, 13.93±0.488, 9.520±0.0333, 22.41±0.53 and 29.66±0.665 respectively. The calorie value of peel was 291.8 kcal/100g.The percentage of moisture, lipid, ash, fibre, protein, and carbohydrate contents of the seed powder were 8.890±0.200, 0.6517±0.0217, 2.567±0.0246, 50.96±0.484, 17.54±0.309, and 19.39±0.520 respectively. The calorie value of seeds was 153.6 kcal/100g. Findings indicated that peel contains a higher percentage of moisture, lipid, ash, protein, and carbohydrate content than the seeds. Lipid content is very less in the seeds. Due to the presence of a significant amount of carbohydrates in fruit peels, it can be utilized as a carbohydrate source. The percentage of crude fibre content is very much higher in seeds than peel. Thus, F. indica seeds can be considered a good source of dietary fibre. Due to high protein content, both peel and seeds can be recommended for value-added food supplements with high protein content. The results of the statistical analysis showed that there is a significant difference (p <0.05) among the total moisture content (p=0.000), lipid content (p=0.000), ash content (p=0.000), crude fibre content (p=0.000), crude protein content (p=0.01) and carbohydrate content (p=0.000) in seed and peel powder. These findings indicate that, Flacourtia indica seeds and peel exhibit the potential to be developed as a functional food.