Microencapsulation of citronella oil by complex coacervation using chitosan-gelatin (b) system: operating design, preparation and characterization

Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

Citronella oil (CO) can be an effective mosquito repellent, but due to its nature which having high volatility, oils rapidly evaporates causing loss of efficacy and shorten the repellent effect. Therefore, microencapsulation technology was implemented to ensure the encapsulated material being protected from immediate contact with environment and offers controlled release. In this study, microencapsulation of CO was done by employing complex coacervation using chitosan-gelatin (B) system and utilized proanthocyanidins as the crosslinker. Remarkably, nearly all material involved in this study are from natural sources which are safe to human and environment. In designing operating process condition for CO encapsulation process, we found that wall ratio of 1:35 and pH 5 was the best operating condition based on zeta potential and turbidity analysis. FT-IR analysis found that gelatin-B had coated the CO droplet during emulsification stage, chitosan started to interact with gelatin-B to form a polyelectrolyte complex in adjust pH stage, CO capsules solidified at cooling process and were hardened during crosslinking process. Final product of CO capsules after settling process was identified at the top layer. Surface morphology of CO capsules obtained in this study were described having diameter varies from 81.63 µm to 156.74 µm with almost spherical in shape.