Microencapsulation is an enduring technology for protection and controlled release of food ingredients. The Garcinia cowa fruit rinds are rich source of (-)-hydroxycitric acid (HCA), which is reported to have various health benefits. But, HCA is hygroscopic in nature and thermally sensitive. Hence, G. cowa fruit extract was microencapsulated using three different wall materials such as whey protein isolate (WPI), maltodextrin (MD) and combination of whey protein isolate and maltodextrin (WPI + MD in 1:1 ratio) by freeze drying at 30% concentration. The microencapsulated powders were evaluated for their impact on bread quality and free HCA concentration. The microcapsules exhibited wider particle size range of 15-100 mu m and HPLC analysis showed that all the three encapsulates yielded higher free (above 85%) and net (above 90%) HCA recovery. Moreover, bread with WPI encapsulates exhibited higher volume, softer crumb texture, desirable colour and sensory attributes and had higher free HCA concentration. This indicated that WPI has excellent encapsulation efficiency than other two wall materials during bread baking. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.