Pinhão residues have a wide range of bioactive compounds and encapsulation can be one of the alternatives to increase their
bioavailability. Thus, this work aimed to apply pinhão extract, pure and encapsulated by solid dispersion, in the formulation
of cookies as a bioactive ingredient. For that, pinhão extract was encapsulated in different biopolymers (sodium caseinate,
gelatin, and gum arabic) and with different shear mechanisms (sonication, Ultra-Turrax, and magnetic stirring). The best
encapsulation procedure has been defined by a chemometric analysis (hierarchical cluster analysis), considering thermal
properties (DSC) of particles and ( +)-catechin encapsulation efficiency (HPLC). The optimized conditions were gelatin
as encapsulation agent and Ultra-Turrax as shear mechanism (70.1 ± 2.8 °C maximum endothermic peak temperature and
96.0 ± 2.3% ( +)-catechin encapsulation efficiency). The phenolic profile of the encapsulated extract showed the presence of
( +)-catechin (0.31 ± 0.01 (mg/gparticle), protocatechuic acid (0.29 ± 0.00 mg/gparticle), and ( −)-epicatechin (0.11 ± 0.00 mg/
gparticle). Both the pure and encapsulated extracts were incorporated into the cookie formulation, which was characterized
in terms of centesimal composition, color parameters, texture, and sensory aspects. It was found that cookies with the pure
and the encapsulated extract showed significant differences concerning the centesimal composition, products added with
pinhão extract and encapsulated extract presented higher values when compared to the control, probably influenced by the
mineral content of the pinhão. In addition, higher hardness values were detected for cookies formulated with the encapsulated
extract, which possibly negatively affected the consumer’s sensory perception.
This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de
Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—
Finance Code 001. Fernanda V. Leimann (process 039/2019) thanks
to Fundação Araucária (CP 15/2017- Programa de Bolsas de Produtividade
em Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico) and to CNPq
(process number 421541/2018–0, Chamada Universal MCTIC/CNPq
n.º 28/2018). The authors are also grateful to the Foundation for Science
and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through
national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020); national
funding by F.C.T. and P.I., through the institutional scientific employment
program-contract for M.I.D and L.B. contracts. Also, to FEDERInterreg
España-Portugal programme for financial support through the
project TRANSCoLAB 0612_TRANS_CO_LAB_2_P.
