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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Plant Polymer Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351561

Research Project: Renewable Biobased Particles

Location: Plant Polymer Research

Title: Encapsulation of essential oils into degradable microcapsules for controlled release

Author
item Kim, Sanghoon
item Peterson, Steven - Steve
item Evans, Kervin

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2018
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Many essential oils (EO’s) possess a wide spectrum of biological activity including anti-microbial, fungicidal, insecticidal/insect repellent, herbicidal, acaricidal and nematicidal properties. They provide a simple, inexpensive, and environmentally-friendly pest control. However, the volatility and water-insolubility of EO’s render their utilization as a pesticide less appealing. To resolve these issues, EO’s were encapsulated into tiny shells (i.e., microparticles). For the encapsulation of EO’s into microparticles, EO droplets were generated in an ethanol-water mixture through phase-separation. Subsequently, these tiny droplets were surrounded by protein molecules to prevent them from coalescing. Depending on the characteristics of employed proteins, the prepared microparticles showed different stabilities. For further stabilization of microparticles, the prepared microparticles were additionally coated with a degradable synthetic polymer. The characteristics, encapsulation efficiency, and effective time of final products will be discussed.