Abstract
This study aims to prepare antimicrobial microcapsules which can be used as an eco-friendly additive for active food packaging paper. Essential oils from aromatic plants, possessing antimicrobial activity, are commonly employed for the treatment of some diseases and symptoms. In this study, an equal volume mixture of three essential oils：oregano, tea tree and cinnamon oils, were embedded into hollow cavities of ϐ-cyclodextrin to form microcapsules via a microencapsulation technology：co-precipitation. The recovery yield of the mixture of three essential oils/ϐ-cyclodextrin after co-precipitation and the embedding ratio of the mixture of three essential oils in ϐ-cyclodextrin were 86.5% and 30.5%, respectively. Based on the results of morphological and X-ray diffraction analyses, the crystal structure appeared to differ before and after microencapsulation. The results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy confirmed the formation of microcapsules. A satisfactory antimicrobial activity of the fabricated microcapsules was proved by an antimicrobial assay using Bacillus subtilis as the object microorganism, suggesting the microcapsules containing a mixture of three essential oils could be a promising additive for food packaging paper.
