Nanoemulsion and nanoparticles of long pepper essential oil: experiments and modeling

<i>Piper hispidinervum</i> essential oil (EO) exhibits promising biocidal activities but suffers from high volatility and physical degradation. To address this, we developed nanoemulsions and polycaprolactone nanocapsules encapsulating long pepper EO, achieving stable formulations (Z-average size: 178–232 nm; encapsulation efficiency: 66–78%). A novel predictive model based on Henry’s law and Fickian diffusion was proposed to describe evaporation profiles without fitted parameters, demonstrating excellent agreement with experimental data (R² &gt; 0.95). Despite minimal volatility reduction from nanocapsules (Henry’s constant change &lt;12%), the model’s universality for EO formulations offers industrial potential for improving controlled-release systems.