THE INFLUENCE OF CORE - SHELL RATIO ON CHARACTERISTICS OF MICROCAPSULES CONTAINING CINNAMON ESSENTIAL OIL APPLIED TO AROMATHERAPEUTIC TEXTILES

Microencapsulation is one of the techniques to prepare the functional textiles. In this paper the essential cinnamon oil loaded microcapsules were prepared by solvent evaporation method. In the microencapsulation process, the core - shell ratio was changed by altering the cinnamon oil content in four levels of 0.15, 0.25, 0.35 and 0.45 g while the other components remained unchanged. The microcapsule characteristics including shape and morphology, size and size distribution, microencapsulation efficiency in dependence on the core-shell ratio were investigated. The antimicrobial capacity and the fragrance durability of interlock knitted fabric coated with the elaborated microcapsules were evaluated. The results showed that cinnamon oil was microencapsulated successfully in the spherical microcapsules. When the cinnamon oil content increased, the microcapsule size decreased and the size distribution became broader, the microcapsules were more porous and more aggregate, the fragrance intensity of the fabric treated with microcapsules increased while the activity against E. coli bacteria decreased. According to the results, the microcapsules elaborated with 0.15 g of cinnamon oil was recommended for the treatment of interlock cotton knitted fabric to apply in aroma and antimicrobial textiles.