137 Article Info Article history Received 15 October 2021 Revised 6 December 2021 Accepted 7 December 2021 Published Online 30 December 2021 Keywords Aloe vera (L.) Brum. f. Spray drying Maltodextrin Quality Morphology Diabetes Treatment Morphological, functional characterization and evaluation of biological value of microencapsulated Aloe vera (L.) Burm. f. Devina Vaidya, Anuradha Pandit, Anshu Sharma  , Manisha Kaushal, Harpreet Kaur Saini, Anupama Anand, Ruchi Sharma and Anil Gupta Department of Food Science and Technology, AICRP on PHET, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni-173230, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India Abstract Nowadays, encapsulation of herbal extracts has become common due to the improvement in the retention time of the nutrients present in the food and control release at specific time after consumption of food in the intestinal gut. The present study was conducted to evaluate the morphological, functional and biological value of microencapsulated Aloe vera (L.) Brum. f. In order to encapsulate A. vera juice, spray drying was done along with 7 per cent carrier material of maltodextrin as per the standard procedure. Further, morphological and functional characteristics were determined with the help of advance analytical techniques such as scanning electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and high performance liquid chromatography. To evaluate the medicinal effects of A. vera, a pre-clinical trial was conducted to see the effect of encapsulated A. vera powder and A. vera juice on diabetic guinea pigs. Guinea pigs were induced with type 2 diabetes by using steptozotocine and further administered with A. vera in the form of juice as well as spray dried powder during their treatment. Four hundred milligram of spray dried A. vera juice powder and five milliliter of A. vera juice showed a prominent effect on balancing the level of glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride. Henceforth, encapsulated powder of A. vera can be suggested for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Copyright © 2021 Ukaaz Publications. All rights reserved. Email: ukaaz@yahoo.com; Website: www.ukaazpublications.com Annals of Phytomedicine 10(2): 137-144, 2021 Annals of Phytomedicine: An International Journal http://www.ukaazpublications.com/publications/index.php Print ISSN : 2278-9839 Online ISSN : 2393-9885 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21276/ap.2021.10.2.19 Corresponding author: Dr. Anshu Sharma Department of Food Science and Technology, AICRP on PHET, Dr. Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni-173230, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India E-mail: anshufst1989@gmail.com Tel.: +91-8219884944 Original Article : Open Access 1. Introduction The effectiveness of plant based drugs in the traditional medicines has led to their exploration at a high rate as they are comparatively cheaper and have very few side effects (Rathore et al., 2017). Majority of people in developing countries depend upon traditional system of medicines for the primary healthcare. According to World Health Organizaton (WHO), about 80 per cent of the individuals from developed countries prefer using traditional medicines which makes their investigation a priority for better understanding of their properties, efficiency and safety aspects (Yadav and Srivastava, 2014). In addition, the contribution of Indian indigenous drugs is still of utmost importance besides the rapid progress in scientific technology. Although, many have been replaced by traditional pharmaceutical approaches because of the interest of general public for the use of natural products world-wide. As a result of scientific efforts aimed at improving the understanding of their effect on human physiology, some plants have been thoroughly characterized and their mechanism of action is now well understood. There are numerous medicinal plants identified and used throughout the world for centuries. However, medicinal plants during this scenario face a lot of problems such as over exploitation, adulteration, unhealthy processing, extinction, storage problems, false marketing, etc. (Manoharachary and Nagaraju, 2016). Further, unlimited plants used in pharmacology are yet to be characterized and undergo scientific testing on their proposed efficacy against diseases. Hence, there is a need for scientific validation of the traditional medicinal plant based drugs to increase their usage and establish their efficacy in the modern times. Diabetes mellitus, a major lifestyle disease is undoubtedly the most challenging public health problem of 21 st century which leads to obesity, insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, lipid abnormalities, impaired fasting glucose and impaired glucose tolerance. According to a statistic data, 470 million patients of pre-diabetes are expected by 2030 (Tabak et al., 2012). However, to overcome this problem the benefits of medicinal plants such as A. vera, is quite relevant since ancient times in literature. A. vera is a medicinal plant with many reputed health benefits and has many references in many cultures: Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Indians and Chinese, etc. (Ahlalwat and Khatkar, 2011). A. vera based clinical evaluations have revealed that the pharmacologically active ingredients are concentrated in both the gel and rind of its leaves. A. vera is known for their nutraceutical properties including antiviral, antibacterial, laxative, antioxidant, anti-inflammation, anticancerous, antidiabetic, antiallergic, immunostimulation, UV protecting activity, etc. It contains a wide variety of biological compounds in the form of polysaccharides such as mannan, glucogalactomannan, arabinogalactan, xylan, vitamins (A, C, E, B 12 , folic acid), minerals (Ca, Cu, Fe, Mg, K, P, Na, Zn), enzymes (alkaline phosphatase, amylase, catalase, oxidase, superoxide dismutase) and phenolic compounds such as aloin and