Microencapsulation of Salvia Officinalis l. essential oil by complex coacervation technology

The essential oil of Salvia officinalis L. (sage) exhibits versatile biological properties. The high sensitivity of sage essential oil (SEO) to environmental conditions and limited processability represent important hurdles in its use, which, however, can be overcome by microencapsulation. The objective of the current study was to encapsulate sage essential oil into core-shell type microcapsules by complex coacervation technology and to transform it into solid form by freeze-drying. Arabic gum (GA) and three different type A gelatin (G) grades were used to investigate the effect of the gel strength on microcapsule characteristics. The formation of essential oil containing microcapsules during complex coacervation was assessed by optical microscopy while SEM imaging was used to determine the morphology of the freeze-dried forms. Characterization of microcapsules was completed with FT-IR spectroscopy. Encapsulation efficiency was determined by UV-VIS spectrophotometry and the composition of essential oil by GC-MS technique. Results revealed that by the application of selected microencapsulation technology and freeze-drying method high encapsulation efficiency values could be achieved, the gel strength of gelatin has a decisive role in microcapsule particle size and the composition of essential oil is well preserved following the technological process.