Myristica fragrans essential oil (MFEO) is a potential active compound for application as an active packaging material. A new approach was developed using a cold plasma treatment to incorporate MFEO to improve the optical, physical, and bacterial inhibition properties of the film. The MFEO was added as coarse emulsion (CE), nanoemulsion (NE), and Pickering emulsion (PE) at different concentrations. The PE significantly affected (p < 0.05) the optical, physical, and chemical properties compared with CE and NE films. The addition of MFEO to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) film significantly reduced water vapor permeability (WVP) and oxygen permeability (OP) and showed marked activity against E. coli and S. aureus (p < 0.05). The release rate of PE films after 30 h was 70% lower than that of CE and NE films. Thus, it can be concluded that the fabrication of active packaging containing MFEO is a potential food packaging material.
Keywords: Myristica fragrans; active film; cold plasma; emulsion; essential oil.