BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Sustainable Food Processing
Enhancement of Antimicrobial Properties of Eco-Traditional Teak Leaf Food Packaging via Pickering Cellulose-Stabilized Lemongrass Oil and Propolis Emulsion Coating
Provisionally accepted
Ata Aditya Wardana1*
Grettivia Gotama1R. Haryo Bimo Setiarto2Chandra Liza2Retno Wulandari2Zarlina Zainuddin2Francis Ngwane Nkede3Laras Putri Wigati3Fumina Tanaka3
Fumihiko Tanaka3Rizka Aulia Rahma4Retno Tri Astuti4- 1Binus University, West Jakarta, Indonesia
- 2Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional Republik Indonesia, Central Jakarta, Indonesia
- 3Kyushu Daigaku, Fukuoka, Japan
- 4Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia
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This study aimed to develop antimicrobial teak leaf-based traditional packaging by coating with a propolis-lemongrass essential oil (LEO) Pickering emulsion stabilized by cellulose nanocrystals (CNC). The coating formulation was composed of 0.8% propolis from Indonesia (A) and Brazil (B) combined with 0.5% LEO and 750 ppm CNC. Nanocellulose with rod-like morphology, characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), served as a stabilizing agent for oil-in-water Pickering emulsions. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) confirmed droplet morphology with < 30 µm diameters. Antibacterial assays revealed efficacy against Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram-negative (Eschericia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria. Propolis B/LEO coatings demonstrated synergistic antimicrobial activity, supported by in vivo and membrane integrity assays, extending the shelf life of leaf-wrapped rice samples until 24 h of storage according to the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority (BPOM) standard. The coatings altered leaf properties, including thickness (0.27–0.41 mm) and color difference (ΔE = 0.41–2.65). This study revealed the feasibility of food-grade Pickering emulsions for sustainable leaf-based packaging solutions.
Keywords: Food, biopolymer, packaging, shelf life, nanoparticle
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wardana, Gotama, Setiarto, Liza, Wulandari, Zainuddin, Nkede, Wigati, Tanaka, Tanaka, Rahma and Astuti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ata Aditya Wardana, ata.wardana@binus.ac.id
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.