Physicochemical and antimicrobial properties of nanoencapsulated Eucalyptus staigeriana essential oil

•Eucalyptus staigeriana essential oil (ESO) was nanoencapsulated using cashew gum (CG) as wall material.•The ESO content varied between 4.76% and 7.12% and the encapsulation efficiencies from 24.89% to 26.80%.•Essential oil doped nanoparticles were shown to exhibit antimicrobial action against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria.•ESO nanoparticles have potential for use as a natural food preservative.

In this work Eucalyptus staigeriana essential oil (ESO) was nanoencapsulated using cashew gum (CG) as wall material. The nanoparticles had their antimicrobial activity against Listeria monocytogenes (Gram-positive) and Salmonella Enteritidis (Gram-negative) evaluated by determining their Minimum Bactericidal Concentration, in addition to being characterized by infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, particle size distribution and zeta potential. Data from MBC showed greater activity against Gram-positive bacteria, due to a likely synergistic effect between the CG and ESO. The nanoparticles had sizes ranging from 27.70 nm to 432.67 nm and negatively charged surfaces. The ESO content varied between 4.76% and 7.12% and the encapsulation efficiencies from 24.89% to 26.80%. The aforementioned data suggest that ESO nanoparticles have potential for use as a natural food preservative.