Tragacanth gum as a natural polymeric wall for producing antimicrobial nanocapsules loaded with plant extract

Tragacanth gum as a biocompatible and biodegradable polymer with good properties including emulsifying, viscosity and cross-linking ability can be used as the wall material in encapsulation of different compounds, specifically plant extracts. In this paper, for the first time, Tragacanth gum was used to produce nanocapsules containing plant extract through microemulsion method. The effect of different parameters on the average size of prepared nanocapsules in presence of aluminum and calcium chloride through ultrasonic and magnetic stirrer was investigated. The high efficient nanocapsules were prepared with spherical shape and smooth surface. The average size of nanocapsules prepared through ultrasonic using aluminum chloride (22 nm) was smaller than other products. The structure of prepared nanocapsules was studied by FT-IR spectroscopy. Antimicrobial activity of different nanocapsules against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans was investigated by shake flask method during their release showed 100% microbial reduction after 12 h stirring. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.