Preparation Of Chitosan Nanoparticles Encapsulating Essential Oils And Application In Chilled Meat

This paper chose three kinds of natural essential oils i.e. cinnamon, thyme and ginger essential oils so as to studied antibacterial activity by experiments on zone of inhibition, and further obtained the optimized proportion of complex essential oils by orthogonal trials. In addition, the preservation effect of the different sizes of cinnamon essential oil nanoparticles (112 nm,215 nm and 527 nm) and the composite essential oils (cinnamon, thyme and ginger) nanoparticles prepared by Ion-gel method on chilled meat were determined.Antibacterial activity of cinnamon, thyme and ginger essential oils indicated prominent inhibitory effect was obtained against common bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of cinnamon, thyme and ginger essential oils against pseudomonas fluorescens were 0.05%,0.125% and 0.1%, respectively, and the MIC of complex essential oils was 0.33%.The determination of nanoparticles encapsulating essential oils showed that ionic crosslinking reaction occurred between chitosan and tripolyphosphate and essential oils were encapsulated in the molecular chain of chitosan. Thermal gravity analysis (TGA) results indicated thermal stability of essential oils encapsulating in chitosan nanoparticles can be enhanced.The studies of preservation effect of chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating essential oils on the chilled meat showed that chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating essential oil could effectively reduce the quality of the protein and lipid deterioration of chilled meat at 4℃, and inhibit microbial spoilage. The quality of chilled meat was significantly improved in the stability of color and texture during storage, compared to control samples. The chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating essential oil could play a protective role on the quality of cold meat.