Production of cinnamon essential oil-loaded electrospun nanofiber for postharvest technology
application usage

This research aims to produce a pullulan and gelatin-based nanofiber sheet containing cinnamon essential oil (CEO) by electrospinning technique for postharvest crops usage. Nanofibers contain highly porous mesh with their large surface-to-volume ratio which is much advantage for improving performance for many applications. First study was to produce the based-nanofiber sheet by varying the combination of two polymers as pulluan and gelatin in order to select the best one for the further study. Based-nanofiber sheets of various proportions of pullulan and gelatin as 60:40, 65:35 and 70:30 (pullulan:gelatin) was produced by using electrospinning technique. The potential difference of electricity supply varied from 23, 25 and 28 kV to find the suitable condition for producing the carried nanofiber sheet was investigated. The result revealed that the 70:30 (pullulan:gelatin) with 28 kV of potential difference was the best condition for producing the based-nanofiber sheet. Afterward, this condition was chosen to the further experiment. The various concentrations of CEO were added into the polymer solution prior to shooting the nanofiber by electrospinning machine. The results suggested that 15% CEO electrospun nanofibers revealed the proper morphology with the constant smallest size of fiber diameter without any droplet of beads. In vitro, antibacterial activity of CEO-nanofiber was also evaluated. This electrospun nanofiber can inhibit aerobic plate count. So, this treatment could be possible to use in postharvest fruit and vegetable in order to prevent microbial growth and maintain quality during storage.