Improving the Antibacterial Effect of Pomegranate Peel Extract with Nano-chitosan Using Encapsulation Technique in Sanitary Papermaking

By developing attention to environmental issues and to the increasing attention of human society to health issues the use of environmentally friendly antibacterial compounds such as plant extracts for the production of antibacterial paper is very interesting. On the other hand, due to the high volatility of these environmentally friendly compounds, it is expected that encapsulating them in materials such as chitosan can increase their stability and control of release into the paper structure. Therefore, in this study, ethanolic extract of pomegranate peel in chitosan was encapsulated by ion gelation method and applied to the surface of the paper by spray method. The structural properties of pomegranate peel extract such as total phenol, total flavonoid and their antioxidant activity were investigated. Structural, barrier such as antibacterial activity and resistance properties of the prepared paper were also investigated. The results showed that nanocapsules of about 160 nm were obtained by ion gelation method, which were able to increase the antibacterial activity of the modified paper by about 35 mm against Staphylococcus aureus. In addition, the antibacterial activity of nanocapsule-modified paper was about two weeks higher than that of pure extract-modified paper. On the other hand, the presence of chitosan in the structure of nanocapsules also led to improved physical and resistance properties of the modified paper