## 1 Introduction  
Recent trends in alleviating toxic compounds generated in foods during processing and storage focus on the utilisation of plant extracts. This fulfils the current trend in using natural ingredients as an alternative to synthetic additives [1]. Moreover, these polyphenolic-rich plant extracts are selected as food ingredients because of their known health-promoting properties. Agpalathus linearis infusions have received great attention in recent years because of their bio-functional properties such as antioxidant [2], anti-inflammatory [3], anti-carnogenic [4], antimicrobial, anti-obesity, and hypoglycaemic [5] activities with the action of polyphenols responsible for the above-mentioned properties [6]. Green rooibos is of interest in the present study since it contains individual polyphenols that have been proven to inhibit non-enzymatic browning reactions in food and model systems. For instance, quercetin and catechin at 50 \(\mathrm{\SIUnitSymbolMicro mL^{-1}}\) exhibited an inhibitory capacity of 40 and 36% against glycation of glucose-boxing serum albumin compared with 17% of aminogudine [7]. Chlorogenic acid and epicatechin reduced arylamide in an asparagine-fructose model system and biscuit. In addition, 0.01 M of chlorogenic acid and epicatechin reduced the formation of furans in a glucose-glycine model system [1]. These polyphenols were found to exert their inhibitory capacities via forming adducts with NEB reactants or their intermediate products. Similar observations were made by authors who studied the anti-glycative effect of plant extracts, proving that these plant extracts exhibited considerably better anti-glycation than the identified individual polyphenols contained in them, attributing the superior inhibitory effect to the synergy between the different polyphenols [8]. Therefore, plant extracts and, in particular, green rooibos would be ideal as functional ingredients in food production. However, the instability of polyphenols during heat processing and storage may pose a challenge to using native plant extracts [9]. Consequently, the development of encapsulation methods and delivery systems containing specific compounds can improve some physicochemical properties of these extracts in food products. Encapsulation of sensitive compounds provides improved stability during processing and in the final product by preventing reactions with other components in food products such as oxygen or water [10]. The release of microparticle content at controlled rates can be triggered by the shearing, solubilisation, heating, pH, or enzyme activity of these agents, which are naturally present in certain plants, ensuring their stability. Common encapsulation material includes carbohydrates, protein and lipid polymers such as maltodextrin, inulin [11], soy protein isolates, sodium alginate, and cyclodext, to mention a few. The choice of polymer is crucial as it affects how the active compound is released. For instance, ref. [PERSON] et al. [12] reported elevated furosine levels in soy protein isolates applied to encapsulate betoroot pomace due to thermal treatments. Similarly, maltodextrin reacts with glycine to form browning compounds [13]. Grape skin phenolics encapsulated in sodium alginate beads interacted with alginate, resulting in reduced bioactivity. Therefore, the encapsulating polymer should not participate in any chemical reaction during processing or storage. Cyclodextrin were the obvious choice since they were proven not to participate in NEB reactions [13]. Cyclodext (CDs) are made up of cyclic oligosaccharides consisting of a number of \(\alpha\) (1\(\rightarrow\)4) linked D-glucose subunits. The most common forms, named alpha (\(\alpha\)), beta (\(\beta\)), and lambda (\(\gamma\)-CDs), are composed of six, seven, and eight glucose units, respectively [10]. These molecules are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries for their ability to form host-guest inclusion complexes with a wide range of bioactive compounds [10; 14].