β-carotene is a natural dye with antioxidant and provitamin A activities, which has essential roles in human health. However, its direct use in food products is unviable since it is susceptible to oxidation, easily isomerization under light, heat or acids, and has low water solubility and oral bioavailability. To address this issue, this work reports, for the first time, the impregnation of β-carotene into corn starch aerogels using supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO₂). The aerogel particles were produced by the emulsion-gelation method, dried by sc-CO₂ and loaded with β-carotene by sc-CO₂ impregnation. The impacts of pressure (15 and 30 MPa), temperature (40 and 60 °C), average depressurization rate (0.25–2.61 MPa/min), and cycles (1−4) were investigated on loading. Excepting depressurization rate, all variables played fundamental roles in loading, reaching a maximum of 0.96 mg β-carotene/g aerogel (30 MPa, 40 °C, 0.40 MPa/min, four cycles).

β-胡萝卜素是一种天然染料，具有抗氧化和维生素A原活性，对人体健康具有重要作用。然而，它在食品中的直接使用是不可行的，因为它易被氧化，在光、热或酸下容易异构化，并且具有低水溶性和口服生物利用度。为了解决这个问题，这项工作首次报道了使用超临界二氧化碳（sc-CO ₂）将β-胡萝卜素浸渍到玉米淀粉气凝胶中。气凝胶颗粒采用乳液-凝胶法制备，sc-CO 2 干燥，sc-CO _2负载β-胡萝卜素浸渍。研究了压力（15 和 30 MPa）、温度（40 和 60 °C）、平均减压速率（0.25–2.61 MPa/min）和循环（1-4）对加载的影响。除降压速率外，所有变量均在加载中起基础作用，最大达到 0.96 mg β-胡萝卜素/g 气凝胶（30 MPa，40 °C，0.40 MPa/min，四个循环）。