Impact of tannic acid on nisin encapsulation in chitosan particles

This study investigates the effect of addition of tannic acid on nisin encapsulated in chitosan matrices. Composite materials were prepared using a mild, environmentally friendly procedure, ionotropic gelation of chitosan by sodium tripolyphosphate in the presence of nisin (N) at different concentrations. In two parallel sets of preparations, tannic acid (TA) was added at 10:1 and 5:1 N:TA, respectively. The obtained particles were characterized by FTIR, SEM, size, zeta potential, encapsulation efficiency, loading capacity, and ratio of residual free amino groups. The kinetics of nisin release from the particles was studied to assess the role of TA as a potential modulator thereof. Its addition resulted in enhanced release, higher at lower N:TA ratio. An additional benefit was that TA, a strong antioxidant, imparted antioxidant activity to the composites. Antimicrobial turbidimetric tests were performed against one gram-positive bacterium (Staphylococcus aureus) and two gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), all relevant for the food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries. All the composites showed synergistic effects against all the bacteria tested. The positive coaction was stronger against the gram-negative species. This is remarkable since nisin by itself has not known activity against them.