Nutrition Research Center, School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Department of Food Science and Technology, School of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.
Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Nov;321:103023. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2023.103023. Epub 2023 Oct 12.
Mint essential oil (MEO) is an outstanding antibacterial and antioxidant agent, that can be considered as a promising natural preservative, flavor, insecticide, coolant, and herbal medicine. However, the low solubility and volatility of MEO limits its extensive applications. In order to utilize MEO in different products, it is essential to develop treatments that can overcome these limitations. More recently, encapsulation technology has been developed as a promising method to overcome the shortcomings of MEO. In which, sensitive compounds such as essential oils (EOs) are entrapped in a carrier to produce micro or nanoparticles with increased stability against environmental conditions. Additionally, encapsulation of EOs makes transportation and handling easier, reduces their volatility, controls their release and consequently improves the efficiency of these bioactive compounds and extends their industrial applications. Several encapsulation techniques, such as emulsification, coacervation, ionic gelation, inclusion complexation, spray drying, electrospinning, melt dispersion, melt homogenization, and so on, have been emerged to improve the stability of MEO. These encapsulated MEOs can be also used in a variety of food, bioagricultural, pharmaceutical, and health care products with excellent performance. Therefore, this review aims to summarize the physicochemical and functional properties of MEO, recent advances in encapsulation techniques for MEO, and the application of micro/nanocapsulated MEO in different products.
薄荷精油（MEO）是一种出色的抗菌和抗氧化剂，可被视为有前途的天然防腐剂、香料、杀虫剂、冷却剂和草药。然而，MEO 的低溶解度和挥发性限制了其广泛应用。为了在不同产品中使用 MEO，必须开发能够克服这些限制的处理方法。最近，封装技术已被开发为克服 MEO 缺点的有前途的方法。在这种方法中，将敏感化合物（如精油（EOs））包封在载体中，以产生对环境条件具有更高稳定性的微或纳米颗粒。此外，EOs 的封装使运输和处理更加容易，降低了它们的挥发性，控制了它们的释放，从而提高了这些生物活性化合物的效率，并扩展了它们的工业应用。已经出现了几种封装技术，例如乳化、凝聚、离子凝胶化、包合络合、喷雾干燥、静电纺丝、熔融分散、熔融均化等，以提高 MEO 的稳定性。这些封装的 MEO 也可以用于各种食品、生物农业、制药和保健品中，具有出色的性能。因此，本综述旨在总结 MEO 的物理化学和功能特性、MEO 的封装技术的最新进展以及微/纳米封装 MEO 在不同产品中的应用。
