Sweet tea extract encapsulated by different wall material combinations with improved physicochemical properties and bioactivity stability.

To prepare sweet tea extract microcapsules (STEMs) via a spray-drying by applying different wall material formulations with maltodextrin (MD), inulin (IN), and gum arabic (GA). The microcapsules were characterised by yield, encapsulation efficiency (EE), particle size, sensory evaluation, morphology, attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy and digestion studies. The encapsulation improved the physicochemical properties and bioactivity stability of sweet tea extract (STE). MD5IN5 had the highest yield (56.33 ± 0.06% w/w) and the best EE (e.g. 88.84 ± 0.36% w/w of total flavonoids). MD9GA1 obtained the smallest particle size (642.13 ± 4.12 nm). MD9GA1 exhibited the highest retention of bioactive components, inhibition of α-glucosidase (96.85 ± 0.55%), α-amylase (57.58 ± 0.99%), angiotensin-converting enzyme (56.88 ± 2.20%), and the best antioxidant activity during gastrointestinal digestion. The encapsulation of STE can be an appropriate way for the valorisation of STE with improved properties.