Abstract
Biodegradable materials have attracted considerable attention to be applied in maintaining food quality and safety due to their ability of a sustained release of antimicrobial agents. In this study, cinnamon essential oil (CEO) loaded poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (ε-caprolactone) (PEG-PCL) micelles (CEO-micelles) were prepared for humidity-controlled CEO release and preservation of strawberry quality. The CEO-micelles with spherical shape and uniform size were obtained, and a high encapsulation rate (92.00 ± 1.77%) of CEO was achieved. X-ray diffraction demonstrated that the CEO was successfully encapsulated in PEG-PCL micelles. The release rate could be controlled by adjusting the relative humidity (RH) and 75% RH was favorable for CEO release from micelles (with 72% total amount release in 7 days). The encapsulation of CEO with high concentrations in PEG-PCL micelles reduced the cytotoxicity. Additionally, CEO-micelles exhibited high antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea, the main pathogenic fungus of strawberry. Finally, the application of CEO-micelles to the preservation of strawberries had a positive effect on changes in decay rate, weight loss, firmness, color, and total soluble solids. These findings suggested that the CEO-micelles could be fabricated to humidity responsible nano-vesicles for preservation of fruit or vegetable with controllable release profile.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and supplementary information files.
Abbreviations
- CEO-micelles:
-
Cinnamon essential oil loaded poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (ε-caprolactone) micelles
- EOs:
-
Essential oils
- CEO:
-
Cinnamon essential oil
- PEG-PCL:
-
Poly (ethylene glycol)-poly (ε-caprolactone)
- PEG:
-
Polyethylene glycol
- PCL:
-
Poly (ε-caprolactone)
- CCK-8:
-
Cell Counting Kit-8
- blank-micelles:
-
The micelles without CEO
- PDI:
-
Polydispersity index
- DLS:
-
Dynamic laser light scattering
- TEM:
-
Transmission electron microscopy
- XRD:
-
X-ray diffractometer
- EE%:
-
The encapsulation efficiency percentage
- HPLC:
-
High-performance liquid chromatography
- PDA:
-
Potato dextrose agar
- ITS:
-
Internal transcribed spacer
- N-J:
-
Neighbor-joining methods
- PET:
-
Polyethylene terephthalate
- CK:
-
Control
- CEO-2:
-
The ratio of CEO content to the volume of air in the clamshells (0.6 L) was 2 μL/L
- CEO-5:
-
The ratio of CEO content to the volume of air in the clamshells (0.6 L) was 5 μL/L
- CEO-10:
-
The ratio of CEO content to the volume of air in the clamshells (0.6 L) was 10 μL/L
- CEO-micelles-2:
-
CEO-micelles with the same amount of CEO as the CEO-2 treatment group
- CEO-micelles-5:
-
CEO-micelles with the same amount of CEO as the CEO-5 treatment group
- CEO-micelles-10:
-
CEO-micelles with the same amount of CEO as the CEO-10 treatment group
- TSS:
-
Total soluble solids
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Acknowledgements
We appreciated the generous help from Nanjing Forestry University Engineering Center and Advanced Analysis and Testing Center.
Funding
This study was funded by the Independent Innovation Project of Jiangsu Province Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CX(21)3030), the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFD1002300), Science and Technology Key R&D Program of Shaanxi Province (NO. 2021SF-339), and Science and Technology Key R&D Program of Xianyang (NO. 2021ZDYF-SF-0030).
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Yali Luo: data curation; investigation; validation; writing—original draft. Xuemei Ge: conceptualization, manuscript revision, funding acquisition. Wen Shen: conceptualization, manuscript revision, funding acquisition. Tingting Li: conceptualization, manuscript revision, funding acquisition. Shuangfeng Guo: data curation, investigation, writing—review and editing. Jingyi Su: data curation, investigation. Zhaoxin Cao: data curation, investigation. Zhiming Liu: data curation, investigation. Shang Wu: data curation, investigation. Yueyang Mao: data curation, investigation. Yan Zheng: writing—review and editing.
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Luo, Y., Su, J., Guo, S. et al. Preparation of Humidity-Responsive Cinnamon Essential Oil Nanomicelles and its Effect on Postharvest Quality of Strawberries. Food Bioprocess Technol 15, 2723–2736 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-022-02906-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-022-02906-0