Cinnamon Essential Oil Encapsulated into a Fish Gelatin-Bacterial Cellulose Nanocrystals Complex and Active Films Thereof

Abstract

In this study, cinnamon essential oil (CEO) nanocapsules were stabilized by means of bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCNCs) and encapsulated using fish gelatin as the main polymer phase. Emulsions were prepared at pH 5 using different CEO concentrations (0.03, 0.06, 0.12, 0.24, 0.36, and 0.48% v/w) and a fixed amount of fish gelatin (3% w/w) and BCNCs (0.06% w/w). The controlled release of the essential oil was assessed by release studies, which revealed that the higher the CEO concentration, the lower the release rate of CEO. In addition, modelling of experimental data using five different equations showed that the best fitting was obtained for the Korsmeyer-Peppas model, according to which the CEO release obeyed a non-Fickian behavior. Films obtained from the same formulations were characterized in terms of optical properties (light transmittance and haze), surface wettability, barrier (oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor transmission rates) and mechanical properties. It was observed that an increased amount of CEO in the films did not significantly affect both transparency and haze, while it yielded an increase in surface hydrophobicity (~ 120% increase in water contact angle over the control) and elongation. Finally, the barrier performances of films against O2, CO2, and water vapor suggest a potential application of CEO/GelA-BCNC matrices as antimicrobial layers (in the form of coatings deposited on plastic films or directly on food) in living foods that have a respiratory metabolism, such as modified atmosphere-packaged crustaceans and mollusks as well as fruits and vegetables.

Impact of Bacterial Cellulose Nanocrystals-Gelatin/Cinnamon Essential Oil Emulsion Coatings on the Quality Attributes of ‘Red Delicious’ Apples

“…As expected, the respiration rate increased for all the treatments after 20 days of storage, indicating that ripening continued after harvesting due to physiological processes. A different scenario was observed after In full agreement with our previous findings [26], the protective effect against water losses was eventually emphasized at the highest applied concentration of essential oil, owing to the larger presence of hydrophobic CEO droplets which might have consistently inhibited evaporative phenomena. These results are consistent with previously reported studies in which biopolymer coatings were deposited on apples [4,16,19,21,22,24] while being in contrast with the results achieved by Sapper et al [14,15], who reported on the coating ineffectiveness to prevent or reduce weight loss from apples.…”

“…All the chemicals and reagents used in this study for the BCNCs-GelA/CEO nanoemulsion preparation were the same as those reported in our previous works [25,26]. The generation of BC and nanocrystals thereof was performed according to the static fermentation protocol and the sulfuric acid hydrolysis, respectively [35].…”

“…In our previous studies, emulsion coatings based on cinnamon essential oil (CEO) embedded in a bacterial cellulose nanocrystals (BCNCs) cage and stabilized by fish gelatin (GelA) were developed and their film-forming properties were deeply investigated [25,26]. Interestingly, coatings incorporating CNCs for fruit during the postharvest process are comparatively new.…”

Production of Innovative Essential Oil-Based Emulsion Coatings for Fungal Growth Control on Postharvest Fruits

“…This effect tended to gradually decrease, as demonstrated by the occurrence of significant ( p < 0.05) decreases in the AI values as a function of time, especially when mild EO treatments were delivered. To this end, it must be inferred that both EO concentration and time had a significant effect up to 150 µL/L for CEO and ZEO, and up to 300 µL/L for SEO, which is linked to the release kinetics of EOs over time, as deeply discussed in our previous work [ 25 ].…”

“…Nanoencapsulation has been widely recognized as an effective technique to address the above issues, as well as to improve the solubility of EOs in water and mask their unfavorable flavor. In addition, nanoencapsulation represents a valid strategy to achieve a controlled release over time of the encapsulated active compounds via degradation and erosion of the outer polymer shell, while maintaining the physical stability of EOs [ 11 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”