Abstract
Essential oils have been studied for various applications, including for therapeutic purposes. There is extensive literature regarding their properties; however, their low stability limits their application. Generally, the microencapsulation of essential oils allows enhanced stability and enables the potential incorporation in solid dosage forms. Lavender and peppermint oils were encapsulated in microparticles using a spray-drying technique under optimized conditions: 170 °C temperature, 35 m3/h aspiration volume flow, and 7.5 mL/min feed flow. Arabic gum and maltodextrin were used as coating polymers individually in varying concentrations from 5 to 20% (w/v) and in combination. The microparticles were studied for morphology, particle size, oil content, and flowability. The formulated powder particles showed a high yield of 71 to 84%, mean diameter 2.41 to 5.99 µm, and total oil content of up to 10.80%. The results showed that both the wall material type and concentration, as well as the type of essential oil, significantly affected the encapsulation process and the final particle characteristics. Our study has demonstrated that the encapsulation of lavender and peppermint oils in Arabic gum/maltodextrin microparticles by spray-drying represents a feasible approach for the conversion of liquids into solids regarding their further use in powder technology.
Highlights
Essential oils (EOs) are widely used as natural preservatives, fragrances, or flavors [1,2,3]
The essential oils were emulsified in the polymer solutions prior to spray-drying using additional emulsifying agents—Tween 80 and Span 80
Lavender and peppermint essential oils were successfully encapsulated by emulsification with Arabic gum, Tween 80 and Span 80, and a subsequent spray-drying process at 170 ◦C temperature, 35 m3/h aspiration flow, and 7.5 mL/min feed flow
Summary
Essential oils (EOs) are widely used as natural preservatives, fragrances, or flavors [1,2,3]. Lavender oil, which is generally obtained from a species of the family Lamiaceae (Lavandula angustifolia, L. latifolia, L. stoechas, and L. intermedia), has a variety of cosmetic and therapeutic applications in herbal medicine ranging from relaxation to treating parasitic infections, burns, and insect bites [4,5,6]. Recent evidence suggests that lavender oil may prove to be effective in the treatment of neurological disorders, such as anxiety, mood instability, convulsions, neurodegenerative disorders, etc. The chemical composition of peppermint oil has been studied thoroughly in the literature [8]. It has a wide variety of medicinal properties, such as analgesic, anesthetic, antiseptic, astringent, carminative, decongestant, expectorant, stimulant, anti-inflammatory, etc. Like most essential oils, consist of volatile components, which is often a cause of instability during formulation and storage mainly due to evaporation or oxidative degradation [12]
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