10 min and drawn into a 5 ml syringe attached with a blunt tip
and 23-gauge metal needle. The prepared mixtures were encapsuled
to a receiving beaker containing 50 ml of cross-linking
solution consisting of 2% (w/v) calcium chloride prepared also in
2% solution of caffeine. For the chitosan coated beads (A-Chi), the
cross-linking solution consisted of 2% (w/v) calcium chloride and
2% (w/v) of chitosan dissolved in the previously prepared 2%
caffeine solution containing 2% (w/v) ascorbic acid (pH = 2.6) (as
described