Microencapsulation of Vetiver Essential Oil using Complex Coacervation Technique

Abstract

Recently, fragrance embedded textiles are being developed in areas of sustainability, environmentconsciousness for healthy life style and well-being. Aromatherapy is a form of an alternative medicine inwhich essential oils are used to impart therapeutic effects. Vetiver essential oil was selected as the corematerial and gum acacia and gelatin as wall materials. For standardization of microencapsulation process,the ratios of core and wall materials, temperature and pH were optimized on the basis of size, distributionand quality of wall of formed microcapsule observed under inverted microscope. The vetiver essentialoil:gum:gelatin in the ratio 1:4:4 at 45 oC temperature with initial pH 4.5 and final pH 7 were optimized fordevelopment of microcapsules as medium sized microcapsules having good uniformity in size anddistribution with sharp and thick walls were obtained with these optimized process parameters. Hence,these optimized variables can be used to prepare the vetiver essential oil microcapsules for the developmentof fragrant textiles.

Utilization of Microencapsulated Thyme Essential Oil for Aroma Treatment of Wool Fabric

“…Wool is a crude protein fiber, and the wool polymer is a linear keratin polymer. Its repeating unit is sulfurcontaining amino acids linked with disulfide bonds Srivastava and Srivastava, [13]; Rukhaya et al [14]. Wool is a very absorbent fiber as it has higher amorphous areas, i.e., about 75-70 percent amorphous and 25-30 percent crystalline; however, the scaly structure of wool makes it partially water repellent, but when moisture or other substances like oil and aroma once penetrate the fiber surface, get absorbed quickly and has good retention for a longer time.…”