Year: 2026 | Month: October | Volume: 13 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 177-188
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20261016
Cinnamon Oil Microcapsules for Antifungal Applications: Preparation Strategies, Characterization, Controlled Release, Self-Healing Coatings and Future Perspectives - A Review
Mayuri Nikam1, Pooja Ravandale1
1Department of Chemistry, SSVP Santhas’s, Late Karmveer Dr P R Ghogrey Science College, Dhule, Deopur
Corresponding Author: Mayuri Nikam
ABSTRACT
Cinnamon essential oil (CEO) has great potential as a plant-derived antifungal because its main components, especially cinnamaldehyde and eugenol, target multiple sites in microbial cells. Nonetheless, direct use of CEO is constrained by its volatility, oxidation. poor aqueous dispersibility, strong aroma, and rapid loss from exposed surfaces. Microencapsulation is a more realistic approach to protect the oil, improve handling, tune release, and embed it in coatings, foods, textiles, and topical delivery systems. In this context, the present review discusses the preparation of these CEO microcapsules, focusing on spray drying, complex coacervation, cyclodextrin inclusion complexes (CICs), ionic gelation, and emulsion-based techniques, as well as polymeric shell-forming strategies (e.g., melamine–formaldehyde systems for use in protective coatings). This work places special emphasis on wall-material selection, encapsulation efficiency, particle size, morphology characterization, chemical and thermal characterization, release kinetics, and antifungal assessment. Representative examples indicate that optimized spray-dried systems can achieve encapsulation efficiencies above 90%, while coacervate, cyclodextrin, and stimulus-responsive systems can prolong retention and modulate release in the presence of humidity, temperature, or matrix-driven stimuli. Disrupting membrane integrity, energy metabolism, redox homeostasis, hyphal development, and other virulence-related processes can reduce fungal growth and biofilm-associated traits in C. factitium. Nonetheless, this should not be regarded as automatically self-healing; true self-healing includes damage-induced release plus quantifiable recovery of a property. Future advances rely on standardized oil characterization, validated release models, application-relevant fungal assays, assessment of formaldehyde remaining and migration over time, long-term coating tests, and sensory/toxicological evaluation at scale. In summary, although CEO microcapsules may be promising candidates for next-generation antifungal materials, claims about their relative stability in formulation should refer only to functions demonstrated in the experimental data rather than general attributes of capsule morphology.
Keywords: cinnamon essential oil; cinnamaldehyde; microencapsulation; antifungal activity; biofilm; controlled release; self-healing coating; active packaging
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