Corrado Iolanda, Di Girolamo Rocco, Regalado-González Carlos, Pezzella Cinzia
Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Cinthia 4, 80126 Napoli, Italy.
Departamento de Investigación y Posgrado en Alimentos, Facultad de Química, Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro, Cerro de las Campanas s/n, Col. Las Campanas, Queretaro 76010, Mexico.
Polymers (Basel). 2022 Jan 1;14(1):166. doi: 10.3390/polym14010166.
Plant-derived essential oils (EOs) represent a green alternative to conventional antimicrobial agents in food preservation. Due to their volatility and instability, their application is dependent on the development of efficient encapsulation strategies allowing their protection and release control. Encapsulation in Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based nanoparticles (NPs) addresses this challenge, providing a biodegradable and biobased material whose delivery properties can be tuned by varying polymer composition. In this work, EO from Mexican oregano was efficiently encapsulated in Polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) and Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyhexanoate (PHB-HHx)-based NPs by solvent evaporation technique achieving high encapsulation efficiency, (>60%) and loading capacity, (about 50%). The obtained NPs displayed a regular distribution with a size range of 150-210 nm. In vitro release studies in food simulant media were fitted with the Korsmeyer-Peppas model, indicating diffusion as the main factor controlling the release. The cumulative release was affected by the polymer composition, possibly related to the more amorphous nature of the copolymer, as confirmed by WAXS and DSC analyses. Both the EO-loaded nanosystems displayed antimicrobial activity against Micrococcus luteus, with PHB-HHx-based NPs being even more effective than the pure EO. The results open the way to the effective exploitation of the developed nanosystems in active packaging.
植物源精油（EOs）是食品保鲜中传统抗菌剂的绿色替代品。由于其挥发性和不稳定性，其应用依赖于高效包封策略的开发，以实现对其的保护和释放控制。基于聚羟基脂肪酸酯（PHA）的纳米颗粒（NPs）包封解决了这一挑战，提供了一种可生物降解的生物基材料，其递送性能可通过改变聚合物组成来调节。在这项工作中，通过溶剂蒸发技术，墨西哥牛至中的EO被有效地包封在基于聚羟基丁酸酯（PHB）和聚-3-羟基丁酸酯-共-羟基己酸酯（PHB-HHx）的NPs中，实现了高包封效率（>60%）和载药量（约50%）。所获得的NPs呈现出规则分布，尺寸范围为150-210 nm。在食品模拟介质中的体外释放研究符合Korsmeyer-Peppas模型，表明扩散是控制释放的主要因素。累积释放受聚合物组成的影响，这可能与共聚物更无定形的性质有关，广角X射线散射（WAXS）和差示扫描量热法（DSC）分析证实了这一点。两种负载EO的纳米系统均对藤黄微球菌具有抗菌活性，基于PHB-HHx的NPs甚至比纯EO更有效。这些结果为在活性包装中有效利用所开发的纳米系统开辟了道路。
