Sodium caseinate is a water-soluble polymer that can form widespread molecular interactions (hydrogen, hydrophobic, and electrostatic).This feature of sodium caseinate makes it a suitable candidate for fabricating transparent edible films with good mechanical properties [1].Essential oils (EOs) extracted from plants exhibit natural antimicrobial activities [2]. In this study, different emulsion-based edible films were produced using sodium caseinate and gum tragacanth as natural and biodegradable polymers and caraway (carum carvi) EO nanoemulsions as natural antimicrobial compounds. The amounts of EO in the different nanoemulsions were 5 and 10 w/v (NE5 and NE10). Various features such as moisture content, swelling percentage, film transparency, and mechanical properties of the edible films were investigated in this study. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of the herbal edible films was assessed against Escherichia coli and Shigella dysenteriae. The results showed that edible films of NE10 had better antibacterial activity rather than NE5 and control (zone of inhibition =17.33±1.52 mm against E. coli and 19.66±0.57 mm against S. dysenteriae for NE10).Regarding film transparency, the control was the most transparent film, and the transparency decreased with increasing EO content. In this study, herbal emulsion-based edible films were produced using natural biopolymers with acceptable antibacterial activity and good physicomechanichal properties.
