Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

MICROENCAPSULATION OF VETIVER ESSENTIAL OIL USINGCOMPLEX COACERVATION TECHNIQUE

Shalini Rukhaya, Neelam M. Rose and Saroj Yadav

Abstract

Recently, fragrance embedded textiles are being developed in areas of sustainability, environmentconsciousness for healthy life style and well-being. Aromatherapy is a form of an alternative medicine inwhich essential oils are used to impart therapeutic effects. Vetiver essential oil was selected as the corematerial and gum acacia and gelatin as wall materials. For standardization of microencapsulation process,the ratios of core and wall materials, temperature and pH were optimized on the basis of size, distributionand quality of wall of formed microcapsule observed under inverted microscope. The vetiver essentialoil:gum:gelatin in the ratio 1:4:4 at 45 oC temperature with initial pH 4.5 and final pH 7 were optimized fordevelopment of microcapsules as medium sized microcapsules having good uniformity in size anddistribution with sharp and thick walls were obtained with these optimized process parameters. Hence,these optimized variables can be used to prepare the vetiver essential oil microcapsules for the developmentof fragrant textiles.