To our knowledge, no reports are available that describe an oil in water in oil (o/w/o) multiple emulsion gelation method for incor- porating SEO into alginate microparticles. Thus, this study aimed to develop SEO-loaded alginate microparticles by o/w/o multiple emulsification and ionic gelation technique. The effects of SEO con- centration on loading capacity (LC), encapsulation efficiency (EE), mean particle size, total phenol (TP) content, antioxidant activity and antimicrobial activity of SEO-loaded alginate microparticles were investigated. Moreover, the compatibility of SEO entrapped into alginate microparticles was evaluated through DSC and FT- IR spectroscopy analysis. In addition, in vitro oil-release behaviors were studied.