Microencapsulation of moringa oil in bio-polymer by simple solvent evaporation technique

Abstract

Moringa oil (MO) contains various bioactive components and pharmacology. It is attractive to use as a raw ingredient in various products. However, there are limitations on its direct utilization, especially MO's instability and hastening the active ingredient's degradation from external environmental factors, including temperature, humidity, oxidation, light, and heat. To solve these problems, in this work, microencapsulation of MO using different biopolymers as cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), ethyl cellulose (EC), and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) were carried out by a simple solvent evaporation technique. The prepared polymer microcapsule suspensions were highly colloidal stable for all types of biopolymers and ratios. The spherical biopolymer capsules were formed to a micrometer size after solvent evaporation under all conditions. However, when the microcapsules were dried, aggregation was found with the polymer microcapsules at a ratio of PLLA to MO of 50:50 for all three types of polymers, possibly due to the low amount of polymer to completely encapsulate all of MO. When polymer contents increased to 70%, the dried spherical polymer microcapsules were smoothly produced. Using 70% polymers, the PLLA microcapsule surface was smoother than the polymer microcapsules prepared by CAB and EC which exhibited the dent or hole on the outer surface. Micrometer size, spherical polymer capsules with a core-shell morphology were fabricated. Due to the higher hydrophilicity of the polymer than the MO, the polymer moves outward, forming a strong shell around the MO. Then, all three biopolymers can be used for the microencapsulation of MO at a suitable polymer to MO ratio. However, using PLLA at a ratio of PLLA to MO of 70:30 presented the highest encapsulation efficiency (74.08%), which may be due to its high molecular weight. Because of the non-toxicity and biodegradability of biopolymers, the fabricated microcapsules would be well applied in cosmetic products.