Electrospun Gelatin Nanofibers Encapsulated with Peppermint and Chamomile Essential Oils as Potential Edible Packaging

Abstract

Natural and edible materials have attracted increasing attention in food packaging, which could overcome the serious environmental issues caused by conventional non-biodegradable synthetic packaging. In this work, gelatin nanofibers incorporated with two kinds of essential oil (EO), peppermint essential oil (PO) and chamomile essential oil (CO), were fabricated by electrospinning for potential edible packaging application. Electron microscopy showed that smooth and uniform morphology of the gelatin/EOs was obtained, and the diameter of nanofibers was mostly enlarged with the increase of the EO content. The proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum confirmed the existence of PO and CO in nanofibers after electrospinning. The addition of EOs led to an enhancement of the water contact angle of nanofibers. The antioxidant activity was significantly improved for the nanofibers loaded with CO, while the antibacteria activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was better for the fibers with PO addition. The combination of half PO and half CO in nanofibers compensated for their respective limitations and exhibited optimum bioactivities. Finally, the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay with NIH-3T3 fibroblasts demonstrated the absence of cytotoxicity of the gelatin/EO nanofibers. Thus, our studies suggest that the developed gelatin/PO/CO nanofiber could be a promising candidate for edible packaging.

Physical and Antibacterial Properties of Peppermint Essential Oil Loaded Poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) Electrospun Fiber Mats for Wound Healing

“…The in vitro cell viability results demonstrated that PCL, PCLPEP1.5, PCLPEP3, and PCLPEP6 electrospun fiber mats exerted no cytotoxic effect on NHDF cells. In agreement with our results, Tang et al (2019) reported that peppermint and chamomile loaded gelatin nanofibers did not change NIH-3T3 fibroblast cell viability. In another study, Hajiali et al (2016) investigated the antibacterial activity and biocompatibility of alginate-lavender nanofibers.…”

Electrospinning of Essential Oils

“…One aspect to consider, however, is the possible alteration of the EO chemical composition during fibre formation because of evaporation. For example, chemical analyses have recorded the disappearance of some characteristic bands of peppermint EO when encapsulated in PCL fibres [49], but not in gelatin [50] and cellulose acetate [44] fibres. Similarly, the main components of Manuka EO are retained in electrospun PLA fibres, but this is not the case for tea tree EO in PLA fibres, possibly due to the different evaporation rates of the constituents of the two oils [68].…”

“…So far a wide variety of essential oils have been electrospun, including cinnamon [39][40][41][42][43][44], oregano [45][46][47][48], peppermint [44,[49][50][51][52], clove [41,[53][54][55][56][57], thyme [58][59][60][61], lavender [62][63][64], eucalyptus [65], ginger [66], tea tree [67,68], Manuka [68], black pepper [69], and sage [69]. This review focuses on works that report the addition of EOs to polymeric solutions before conducting the electrospinning process.…”

“…Peppermint EO has been electrospun from PCL [49], cellulose acetate [44], gelatine [50], polyurethane [51], and PEO [52] matrices, and in combination with other bioactive compounds, such as chamomile EO [50], copper sulphate [51], and cerium oxide [52]. Gelatine fibres with an average diameter of ~500 nm were electrospun from acetic acid/water solutions containing 0%, 3%, 6%, and 9% v/v of peppermint EO and 1:1 blends of peppermint and chamomile EOs [50]. The following experimental parameters were used: voltage of 15 kV, flow rate of 0.3 mL/hour and working distance of 10 cm.…”

Electrospun Functional Materials toward Food Packaging Applications: A Review

“…Tang et al [145] prepared edible gelatin based composite fibers by electrospinning. The combination of gelatin nanofibers with peppermint essential oil (PO) and chamomile essential oil (CO) could enhance the hydrophobicity of membrane surface, and all the gelatin nanofibers containing PO, CO or PO/CO had better antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and had certain antioxidant properties ( Figure 13).…”