Microencapsulation of Essential Oils for Antimicrobial Foot Bed

Abstract

The present study emphasizes the microencapsulation of mixture of three essential oils and explores its application in footwear industry. In brief, essential oils of Thymus zygis, Citrus limoniumand Cinnamomum cassia microencapsulated as per the standard protocol followed elsewhere. The obtained microcapsules characterized, fused on to the foot bed materials of footwear using hand sprayer and assessed the antimicrobial property after airdrying. The foot bed material chosen for the present study includes leather, textile and polymer. Representative standard Gram -positive and Gram – negative bacterial species, and few of the fungal species isolated from leather samples are the test organisms used in the present study. Results revealed the size of the microcapsules as 25-60 nm. Optical and Scanning electron micrographs suggested the spherical nature of the capsules. Antibacterial and antifungal activity studies on microcapsules as such and foot bed materials before and after the incorporation of microcapsules infers the complete inhibition of microbial growth in microcapsules incorporated foot bed materials. The stability studies on the spray coating of microcapsules on to the foot bed materials reveal more than six months stability. SEM analysis of fungal species before and after exposure to microcapsules suggested the thinning of filaments and the natural mechanism of growth inhibition. In conclusion, coating of microencapsulated essential oils adds antimicrobial property to the foot bed materials.