Antioxidant Microemulsion-based Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Film Containing Mangiferin and Surfactants

Abstract

Mangiferin, a natural antioxidant additive, was incorporated into an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) containing 18% vinyl acetate (VA) using the emulsion solvent evaporation technique. Sorbitan ester (Span®20) and polymeric surfactant (Pluronic®P−123) were compared. Mangiferin was finely dispersed in the suspension with the addition of surfactants studied. Span®20 was chosen as the surfactant for film preparation in the next step due to the dispersing and film forming properties. Effects of vinyl acetate (VA) contents on the film properties were investigated. The EVA films with 12% VA had the highest tensile strength and oxygen barrier, followed by 18, 25 and 40% VA, respectively. Addition of Span®20 had only a slight effect on mechanical and barrier properties of the films, but markedly increased the release of mangiferin from the EVA matrices except in the 40% VA films. The maximum concentrations of mangiferin released from the 40, 25, 18 and 12% VA films into 95% ethanol were 83.30, 66.84, 51.77 and 34.57 μg·mL−11, respectively. The release concentrations from the 40 and 25% VA films was 2.4 and 1.9 folds of that from the 12% VA film, respectively. The antioxidant activity of the EVA films containing mangiferin and Span®20 was 80% radical-scavenging capacity (RSC) for the 40 and 25% VA and 60% RSC for the 18 and 12% VA. The release of mangiferin from the EVA matrices may be controlled by appropriate selection of the surfactants and vinyl acetate contents.