MICROENCAPSULATED POWDERS OF AGRAZ (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz) FRUIT AS A CARRIER FOR METABOLITES WITH IN VITRO ANTIHYPERTENSIVE ACTIVITY

The agraz (Vaccinium meridionale Swartz) fruit is an anthocyanin source with antihypertensive in vitro activity. V. meridionale fruit powders were obtained by spray-drying (SD) with maltodextrin DE-20 (MD). A polar extract was obtained by acetone-water extraction and then partitioned with solvents of increasing polarity. The anthocyanin-rich extract was microencapsulated using two inlet temperatures (120 and 150 °C) and two ratios between fruit (AGZ) and encapsulating agent (MD) (1:1 and 2:3, w/w). The four microencapsulated powders (M1-M4) were physicochemically characterized; the total phenolic content and the in vitro antihypertensive activity (inhibition of the angiotensin-I enzyme, ACE-I) were measured in the freeze-dried fruit and polar fractions. V. meridionale fruit has potential as an ACE-I inhibitor, with delphinidin and cyanidin derivatives being among the chemical compounds responsible for this activity. The physicochemical, morphological, thermal, and biofunctional properties of microencapsulates were evaluated, finding that the M1 and M3 samples (120 °C, 1:1, and 150 °C, 1:1, respectively) showed the highest antihypertensive activity value. These results suggest that V. meridionale could be used to develop microencapsulates with biofunctional properties, which can be used as additives for different food matrices.