Development of cinnamon essential oil blends microemulsion as natural preservatives for topping creams

Abstract Food preservatives play an essential role in the production of safe and high-quality food. Natural preservatives are gradually gaining attention because it has less potential health risks compared to chemical preservatives. In this research, the cinnamon essential oil was encapsulated into the microemulsion system. The aim is to assess the effectiveness of cinnamon essential oil blends microemulsion as a preservative by examining its physical characterisation and stability in topping cream. Phase titration method was conducted to formulate microemulsion by mixing cinnamon essential oil, tween 20 and water together according to ratios from 0:10 to 10:0. A pseudo ternary phase diagram was constructed based on the visual appearance of ternary mixtures obtained. Three microemulsions were chosen and further analysed. The results indicated that cinnamon essential oil blends microemulsion exhibits transparent appearance with low acidity (pH 3.5-4.0), moderate conductivity (51-57 µS/cm), low viscosity ( < 4 mPa second) and shows excellent stability without being influenced by temperature changes and time. Thus, this study has demonstrated the potential of cinnamon essential oil blends microemulsion for its role in topping cream preservation due to the presence of cinnamaldehyde, a major antibacterial compound.