Konjac glucomannan/Pullulan films incorporated with cellulose nanofibrils-stabilized tea tree essential oil Pickering emulsions

Biopolymers, such as polysaccharides are increasingly concern in preparation of food packaging. However, those materials have weakness in properties of mechanics, hydrophobicity, and antibacterial, which limit their ap-plications. In this work, we prepared emulsion (K-PL-CEOs) films with double network (DN) matrix by using konjac glucomannan (KGM) and Pullulan (PL), and incorporated with cellulose nanofibrils (CNF)-stabilized tea tree essential oil (TTEO) Pickering emulsions (CEOs). The effect of CEOs content on the structural and physi-cochemical properties of K-PL films was investigated. The results showed that CEOs were well dispersed in K-PL film forming matrix. The addition of CEOs could improve the thermal stability, UV-shielding, water resistance and mechanical properties of K-PL-CEOs films. Moreover, K-PL-CEOs films exhibited good antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. This paper demonstrated that K-PL-CEOs films can be potentially applied as food packaging.

Automated summary

In this study, emulsion films with double network matrix were prepared using konjac glucomannan and Pullulan, and incorporated with cellulose nanofibrils-stabilized tea tree essential oil emulsions. The addition of tea tree essential oil emulsions improved the thermal stability, UV-shielding, water resistance, and mechanical properties of the films. The films also exhibited good antibacterial activity.