The absorbance intensity of free or encapsulated curcumin were measured using a Biotek Synergy H1 plate reader (Lumitron). The samples were prepared with pep4 (10 mM) in a buffer solution (25 mM, 3 M NaCl) with curcumin (50 mg/L). The control samples were prepared in the same buffer solutions without the peptide. Part of the samples were exposed to UV irradiation for 3 h, followed by dilution of the samples (4 µL) in ethanol (21 µL) and TDW (5 µL) in order to disassemble the coacervates. The absorbance of all samples was measured at 425 nm for samples prepared in acetate and phosphate buffers or at 440 nm for the samples prepared in carbonate buffer due to the red-shifted absorbance of the enol form of curcumin. The experiments were conducted in triplicate and the results were compared using one-way ANOVA test with Tukey-Kramer post hoc analysis.