Essential Oils (Eos) as the Advantages of its Micro-encapsulation in Cosmetic Industry

Abstract

Essential oils are aromatic and volatile liquids extracted from plants. Essential oils and their labile constituents have been widely used to prevent and treat human diseases. They have been widely used for medicinal, bacterial, fungicidal, antioxidant, allelochemical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food industries. Extensive documentation on the antimicrobial properties of essential oils and their constituents has been carried out by several workers. Although the mechanism of action of a few essential oil components has been elucidated in many pioneering works in the past, detailed knowledge of most of the compounds and their mechanism of action is still lacking. This knowledge is particularly important for the determination of the effect of essential oils on different microorganisms, how they work in combination with other antimicrobial compounds, in cosmetic products; essential oils (EOs) play a major role as fragrance ingredients. They can optimize its proprieties and preservation, as well as the marketing image of the final product. Microencapsulation of EOs can protect and prevent the loss of volatile aromatic ingredients and improve the controlled release and stability of these core materials. The importance of EOs for cosmetic industry and its microencapsulation was reviewed in this study. Also, a brief introduction about the preparation of microparticles was presented. Some of the most important and usual microencapsulation techniques of EOs, as well as the conventional encapsulating agents, were discussed.

Keywords

• Essential oils
• microencapsulation
• Antimicrobial Activity
• Cosmetic Industry