Essential oils (including carvacrol, CAR) have been used in the medicinal and health field because of their broad-spectrum antibacterial activities. However, the volatility and pungent odor are still the greatest obstacles to wider application. The purpose of the present study was to address those problems by encapsulating the antibacterial CAR in palygorskite (Plg) by integrating it into Pickering emulsions with complex coacervation. The CAR in Pickering emulsion was formed firstly by stabilization with the CAR-modified Plg; then, the emulsion droplets were embedded and fixed in the microcapsule through the subsequent complex coacervation process, which occurred between the quaternary ammonium salt of chitooligosaccharides (HACC) and sodium alginate (SA) via calcium ions. The microcapsules obtained were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results demonstrated that the microcapsules presented a nearly sphere-like shape with a mean diameter of 3.5 mm but had a porous interior structure. The Plg plays multiple roles in the preparation process, including increasing the emulsion stability, improving the encapsulation efficiency of CAR, and the thermostability of microcapsules. The microcapsules showed remarkable antibacterial properties against Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and inhibition rates toward E. coli and S. aureus reached 100% when the microcapsules were encapsulated with 15 or 20% of CAR, respectively. The microcapsules obtained could be used as antibacterial agents in food preservatives, animal feed, and other health-related consumer products.

精油（包括香芹酚，CAR）因其广谱抗菌活性而被用于医药和保健领域。然而，挥发性和刺激性气味仍然是更广泛应用的最大障碍。本研究的目的是通过将抗菌 CAR 封装在坡缕石 (Plg) 中来解决这些问题，方法是将其整合到具有复杂凝聚作用的 Pickering 乳液中。Pickering乳液中的CAR首先通过CAR修饰的Plg稳定形成；然后，通过随后的复杂凝聚过程，将乳液液滴嵌入并固定在微胶囊中，该过程通过钙离子发生在壳寡糖季铵盐（HACC）和海藻酸钠（SA）之间。获得的微胶囊通过傅里叶变换红外光谱 (FTIR)、扫描电子显微镜 (SEM) 和热重分析 (TGA) 进行了表征。结果表明，微胶囊呈近似球形，平均直径为3.5 mm，但内部结构为多孔。Plg在制备过程中发挥着多重作用，包括提高乳液稳定性、提高CAR的包封效率和微胶囊的热稳定性。微胶囊显示出显着的抗菌性能 Plg在制备过程中发挥着多重作用，包括提高乳液稳定性、提高CAR的包封效率和微胶囊的热稳定性。微胶囊显示出显着的抗菌性能 Plg在制备过程中发挥着多重作用，包括提高乳液稳定性、提高CAR的包封效率和微胶囊的热稳定性。微胶囊显示出显着的抗菌性能分别用15%或20%的CAR封装微胶囊时，大肠杆菌（E.coli）和金黄色葡萄球菌（S.aureus ）对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的抑制率分别达到100%。获得的微胶囊可用作食品防腐剂、动物饲料和其他与健康相关的消费品中的抗菌剂。