Preparation and characterisation of microcapsules loaded with essential oils (eucalyptus, aloe vera and lavender): encapsulation of cotton woven fabric and evaluation

Abstract Microcapsules are prepared by taking essential oils (EO) as core and gum Arabic as cover materials through a complex coacervation method. There are three essential oils are selected based on the presence of a major proportion of bacterial inhibition compounds. The sourced essential oils are derived from the identified plant species such as eucalyptus globulus, aloe barbadensis mill, and lavandula angustifolia. The proportion of the major bacterial inhibiting elements is as follows, eucalyptol (52%) from eucalyptus, linoelaidic acid (17%) from aloe vera, and linalool (35%) from lavender. Three levels of concentration of oils are preferred to identify the best bacterial inhibition. The design of the experiment is made based on box & behnken design for preparing microcapsules. The microstructure and elemental compounds of the capsules are confirmed and observed through an optical microscope and scanning electronic microscope(SEM) with EDX. The average capsule size of 2 to 7 microns was recorded by employing a particle size analyser. The encapsulation efficiency was obtained to 43%. Then, the microcapsules are applied on the cotton woven fabric and evaluated for antibacterial, antioxidant, thermos gravimetric analysis (TGA), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infra-Red Analysis, SEM, and EDX. It was observed that the antibacterial and antioxidant properties are significantly improved with the encapsulated fabric sample. So it may be applied for designing the capsule with drug and may develop medical textile products for hygiene.