Antifungal activity of poly(ε-caprolactone) nanoparticles incorporated with Eucalyptus essential oils against Hemileia vastatrix

Coffee (Coffea L.) is one of the main crops produced globally. Its contamination by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix Berkeley and Broome has been economically detrimental for producers. The objective of this work was to extract and characterize the essential oils from Eucalyptus citriodora Hook, Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehn and Eucalyptus grandis Hill ex Maiden, produce and characterize nanoparticles containing these essential oils and evaluate the in vivo and in vitro antifungal activity of free and nanoencapsulated essential oils. The principal constituent of the essential oil from E. citriodora was citronellal; that from E. grandis was alpha-pinene; and that from E. camaldulensis was 1,8-cineol. The in vitro antifungal activity against the fungus H. vastatrix was 100% at a concentration of 1000 mu l l(-1) for all the oils and nanoparticles containing these natural products. The sizes of the nanoparticles produced with the essential oils from E. citriodora, E. camaldulensis and E. grandis were 402 center dot 13 nm, 275 center dot 33 nm and 328 center dot 5 nm, respectively, with surface charges of -11 center dot 8 mV, -9 center dot 24 mV and - 6 center dot 76 mV, respectively. Fourier transform infrared analyses proved that the encapsulation of essential oils occurred in the polymeric matrix of poly(epsilon-caprolactone). The incorporation of essential oils into biodegradable poly(epsilon-caprolactone) nanoparticles increased their efficiency as biofungicides in the fight against coffee rust, decreasing the severity of the disease by up to 90 center dot 75% after treatment with the nanoparticles containing the essential oil from E. grandis.