PREPARATION OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENT LOADED MICROCAPSULES FOR MEDICAL TEXTILES

The aim of this work is to develop microcapsules loaded with antimicrobial agent to apply medical textile products. for this purpose st. john’s wort oil (hypericum perforatum) with antimicrobial activity was encapsulated by complex coacervation method using gelatin (ge) and gum arabic (ga) as wall material. the effect of various processing parameters, including the amount of oil, amount of surfactant and stirring rate at hardening stage on the encapsulation yield, particle size distribution and capsule loading was investigated. in general, at high oil content the encapsulation yield, capsule size and oil loading increased. as expected an increase in the amount of surfactant decreased the capsule size. in this case, the loading was low, as well. high stirring rate increased the encapsulation yield and capsule siz.