Prickly pear seed oil (PPSO) encapsulated by biodegradable polymer Poly-hydroxy-butyrate-co-valerate (PHBV)

The main objective of this study is to encapsulate one of the most expensive oil in the world “prickly pear seed oil (PPSO)” with a biodegradable and biocompatible polymer “Polyhydroxy butyrate-co-valerate (PHBV)”. PPSO loaded PHBV microcapsules were prepared by the solvent evaporation method using oil in water emulsion (O/W). On chemical analysis oil was found to show high iodine value (199.7) and oxidative stability (1.95 meq O2 /kg) which reveals that the seed oil upholds the good qualities of edible oil. UV–visible spectrophotometric studies showed absorption bands at 244 nm and 284 nm. This further supported the encapsulation efficiency of PHBV with respect to the concentration of PPSO. The highest encapsulation efficiency observed was 25 % at the optimum PPSO concentration (0.24 g/ml). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) supported the results obtained. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis revealed the spherical shape of PPSO loaded PHBV microcapsules.