3.3. Physical stability of β-carotene emulsions stabilised by α-La–CA or EGCG covalent complex
3.3.1. Changes in particle size of β-carotene emulsion during storage
Changes in particle size of emulsions stabilised by α-La–EGCG and α-La–CA covalent complex and mixture during storage for 15 days at 4 °C are shown in Table 2. At the beginning of the storage, PDI of all samples was below 0.2, and all droplet size distributions were mainly unimodal (data not shown), which indicated that the emulsions were stable. A smaller particle size was observed in the emulsions stabilised by α-La–EGCG and α-La–CA covalent complex, compared with the emulsions using the control α-La (p < 0.05). This result revealed that the emulsifying property of α-La was improved by the covalent interaction between α-La and EGCG at pH 8.0, 60 °C. However, the smallest particle size of oil droplet was found in emulsions stabilised by the native α-La and α-La–CA or EGCG mixture (p < 0.05).