Natural-derived porous nanocarriers for the delivery of essential oils

Essential oils (EOs) are natural and volatile substances from aromatic plants. They have multiple pharmacological effects such as antibacterial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant effects, and have broad application prospects in health care, food, and agriculture. However, the instability of volatile components that are prone to deterioration under light, heat, oxygen environment, as well as limited water solubility, have greatly restricted the development and application of EOs. Porous nanoclays are natural-derived clay minerals with a layered structure. They have unique structural characteristics such as large pore size, regular distribution, and tunable particle size, which are widely utilized in drug delivery, adsorption separation, reaction catalysis and other fields. Natural-derived porous nanoclays have drawn great attention for encapsulation and delivery of EOs. In this review, we comprehensively summarized the structure, types, and properties of natural-derived porous nanoclays, focusing on the structural characteristics of porous nanoclays such as montmorillonite, palygorskite, halloysite, kaolinite, vermiculite, and natural zeolite, and the research advances in their delivery of EOs, and explore engineering strategies to improve the delivery of EOs by natural-derived porous nanoclays. Finally, various applications of natural-derived porous nanoclays for EOs in antibacterial, food preservation, repellent and insecticide aspects are introduced, to provide a reference for the development and application of EOs.