ABSTRACT
To improve business performance and achieve sustainable development through the concept of hot spring resource reuse, this study investigated the antibacterial effect of alginate-coated tea tree essential oil microcapsules and the effect of alginate microcapsules on the release of tea tree essential oil. The results revealed that 450 μm alginate/tea tree essential oil microcapsules (containing 720 ppm of tea tree essential oil) prepared using microfluidic assemblies effectively inhibited total bacteria, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus in hot spring water. For alginate/tea tree essential oil microcapsules prepared under different conditions, at a fixed concentration of cross-linking reagents, the release time increased with the cross-linking time (10 min > 5 min > 1 min). At a fixed cross-linking time, the release time increased with the concentrations of cross-linking reagents (1 M > 0.5 M > 0.1 M). When the concentrations of cross-linking reagents and the cross-linking time were the same, the release time of cross-linking reagents increased with the strength of metal activity (Ca > Zn).
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has made it essential to explore alternative antiviral materials. Alginate is a biodegradable, renewable, biocompatible, water-soluble and antiviral biopolymer with many potential biomedical applications. In this regard, this review shows 17 types of viruses that have been tested in contact with alginate and its related biomaterials. Most of these studies show that alginate-based materials possess little or no toxicity and are able to inhibit a wide variety of viruses affecting different organisms: in humans by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1, the hepatitis A, B, and C viruses, Sindbis virus, herpes simplex virus type 1 and 2, poliovirus type 1, rabies virus, rubella virus, and the influenza virus; in mice by the murine norovirus; in bacteria by the T4 coliphage, and in plants by the tobacco mosaic virus and the potato virus X. Many of these are enveloped positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses, like SARS-CoV-2, which render alginate-based materials highly promising in the COVID-19 pandemic.