Nanoencapsulation of Thyme Extract with Antifungal and Antioxidant Effects

Antifungal bioactive compounds in Thyme extract are prone to degradation by oxidation, heating or light. For preventing of this problem, encapsulation process is a valuable method to protect these natural products. The aim of this study was to encapsulate of Thyme extract via chitosan as a biodegradable polymer to keep antifungal effect and other chemical bioactive compounds. In this study, extraction of Thyme was carried out by probe ultrasonic- assisted extraction (UAE) system with total solid content (TSC) 64% and then synthesis of chitosan nanoparticles containing Thyme extract was performed by ionotropic gelation technique. Morphology of chitosan nanoparticles was identified through field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The related images showed a spherical shape of the nanoparticles. Particles size of the encapsulated polymers was 75.07 nm with single modal particle size distribution which was measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS) method. Infrared spectroscopy (IR) of both encapsulated with and without extract indicated that the synthesized nanoparticles could involve the bioactive compounds to their vacancies, successfully. This ecofriendly procedure could be represented as a suitable alternative for biological control of the plant pathogens instead of chemical fungicides.