Improvement of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of chitosan film with caraway and oregano essential oils

Abstract

In this work, caraway or oregano essential oils were added to the cast chitosan film in an attempt to design a natural, biodegradable, bioactive (antioxidant and antimicrobial) packaging film. When the structure of the tested films was analyzed with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, no significant differences were found between the chitosan film with and without essential oils of caraway or oregano. The lowest antioxidant activity, based on the scavenging of the stable DPPH free radical, was detected for the chitosan film without oil addition, going from 11.64%, after 2.5 h to 28.96%, after 24 h. When the caraway essential oil was added to the chitosan film, the antioxidant activity was increased (p<0.05) to 33.47±4.77%, after 2.5 h and to 81.08±0.64%, after 24 h. This increase in the antioxidant activity was even higher in the film with oregano essential oil (p<0.05). After 2.5 h, the value for the antioxidant activity of the chitosan-oregano film was 87.58±1.71%, and after 4 h and 24 h it was above 90%. The obtained results for the antimicrobial activity showed that the chitosan film is an effective antimicrobial agent against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. When caraway essential oil was added in 1% volume concentration to the film, no increase in the antimicrobial action of chitosan film was detected. On the other hand, the addition of oregano essential oil promoted chitosan film antimicrobial activity, which was particularly evident with Escherichia coli. The results showed that the chitosan film can be successfully applied as a matrix carrier for essential oils in the active film system.