Encapsulation efficiency of vitamin D3 in α-lactalbumin during storage

Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in children and will precipitate and exacerbate osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fractures in adults. It has been associated with increased risk of common cancers, autoimmune diseases, hypertension, and infectious diseases. A circulating level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D of >75 nmol/L, or 30 ng/mL, is required. Fortification program of vitamin D in daily food products is one of an effective way to increase vitamin D in food. Since vitamin D is a sensitive vitamin, encapsulation of αlactalbumin is needed to protect it from the environments, such as light, heat, and oxidation. In this study, vitamin D3 was encapsulated with α-lactalbumin. The objective was to obtain the stability and the structure of vitamin D3 encapsulated with α-lactalbumin. Encapsulation efficiency (EE) measured by UV-VIS spectrophotometer with wavelength of 264 nm. Structure of vitamin D3 encapsulated with alpha-lactalbumin obtained by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with four different magnification. In this study, vitamin D3 attached inside α-lactalbumin as seen by SEM. The morphology showed the hydrophobic binds between vitamin D3 and α-lactalbumin. Vitamin D3 was successfully encapsulated with α-lactalbumin with an EE 94.89%. The highest EE was from the vitamin D3/α-lactalbumin ratio 5:1. The coating of α-lactalbumin increased the solubility of vitamin D3 in the system. System stored in a cool temperature (5oC). The encapsulation efficiency of the system is 16.44% on the seventh day. It means that it decreases a lot from 100% to 16.44% in seventh day and proof that attachment between the system is weak. Finally, it can conclude that the encapsulation efficiency of α-lactalbumin is high, but the shelf-life is short and attachment between the system is week.

H-D Analysis Employing Energy Transfer from Metastable Excited-State He in Double-Pulse LIBS with Low-Pressure He Gas

A laser-induced-breakdown-spectroscopy (LIBS) experiment with a unique double-pulse setup and operated in low-pressure (3 kPa) He ambient gas is performed to study the detection of light elements, such as hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D), as well as elements of high excitation energies, such as fluorine (F) and chlorine (Cl), which are usually difficult to detect using ordinary LIBS techniques. A nanosecond Nd:YAG laser operated in its fundamental wavelength with energy of 54 mJ is focused onto the Al target to generate the He plasma. Another picosecond Nd:YAG laser operated in its fundamental wavelength with energy of 2 mJ is focused onto the sample surface and activated 2 μs before the operation of the nanosecond laser. The application to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) samples produces sharp and high-intensity Cl- and F-emission lines. Meanwhile, the sharp and well-resolved H-D-emission lines with merely 0.18 nm wavelength separation are also clearly detected from a zircaloy sample. Further measurement of a set of zircaloy samples containing different concentrations of D yields a linear calibration curve with a zero intercept. The detection limit of D is found to be about 10 ppm.