Encapsulation is a physical or chemical process, in which a substance is completely or partially enclosed in a coating material. This coating help to improve the resistance of materials to environmental conditions, increase efficiency, reduce side effects and increase the release time of materials. In this research, beta-cyclodextrin modified gelatin nanoparticles were synthesized as a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer nanocarrier. This nanocarrier was used in the presence of the Tween 20 surface active agent to cover the essential oil extracted from the Pistacia atlantica tree gum by O/W emulsion method. Synthesized samples were characterized by FT-IR, DLS, SEM and zeta potential techniques.
According to the obtained results, the SEM image of the synthesized coating reagent shows a continous phase morphology with a smooth surface and the bonded beta-cyclodextrins show embossed surfaces on the nanoger surface. The place of accumulation of the essential oil is significantly higher around the beta-cyclodextrins. The synthesized reagent shows a mean diameter about 176.3 nm with a zeta potential about -2.66 mV. In the presence of the essential oil, the nano-gelatin shows an increase in diameter along with an increase in negative zeta potential. TGA analysis of the synthesized samples showed that Tween 20 surfactant increases the thermal stability of the coated sample. The study of essential oil release showed that its release rate increases with time up to 33 hours.
In order to measure antioxidant properties, free radical scavenging and total phenolic content of the encapsulated essential oil, UV-Visible spectrophotometry method was used. The results showed that compared to the free essential oil, the encapsulated sample showed more antioxidant properties, free radical scavenging and total phenolic content. Examining the antibacterial activity of the encapsulated essential oil on the strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 29213) and Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922) s