In this study, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) films containing 1%, 2%, and 3% Chinese fir essential oil (CFEO) were prepared. The mechanical, optical, physical, microstructural, thermal stability and antimicrobial properties of the films were studied. A traditional steam distillation method was applied for CFEO extraction, in which 35 volatile components were identified. The research results showed that the CMC film mixed with 1% CFEO had the highest tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EB), whereas the flexibility was decreased under higher concentrations of CFEO. However, the film’s degree of transparency under controlled humidity did not decrease with an increase in CFEO concentration; thus, the sensory evaluation was not adversely effect. Furthermore, the thickness and the water solubility (WS) of film increased after the addition of CFEO. The thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results indicated that the thermal stability of the CMC-CFEO films improved. Moreover, the composite films showed excellent inhibitory effects toward Gram-positive bacterias and Penicillium citrinum. The treatments of grapes with CMC + 1% CFEO resulted in the best properties during storage. CMC-CFEO film can be a candidate for food packaging due to its excellent performances.

Essential oils are natural antibacterial substances and have potential value for application in fruit and vegetable packaging. In this study, Chinese fir essential oil (CFEO) was microencapsulated to prepare food packaging materials for the first time to overcome its volatilization and oxidation shortcomings and to obtain a sustained-release form of the oil. CFEO was effectively encapsulated in gelatin and chitosan using the complex coacervation method, and the encapsulation efficiency, microstructure, infrared spectrum and thermal stability of the microcapsules were evaluated. Experiments confirmed that the microcapsules had some antibacterial activity. A bioactive paper was developed by combining CFEO microcapsules (CFEO-Ms) with paper-based material using the film-forming property of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The coated paper showed good mechanical, air permeability and moisture permeability properties. Environmental scanning electron microscopy confirmed that CFEO-Ms bonded well with PVA and was successfully introduced into the paper fiber after coating, forming an obvious coating film on the surface to facilitate the continuous release of CFEO. The shelf life of strawberries was significantly prolonged when the PVA-coated paper mixed with 3% CFEO-Ms was used for packaging. The results demonstrated that the CFEO-Ms coated paper has the potential to become an effective packaging material for the preservation of strawberries.

In recent years, textiles with antimicrobial properties have attracted more and more attention. As natural antimicrobial agents, essential oils’ potential application value lies in their ability to provide textiles with antimicrobial functions. In this paper, organic solvent extraction (n-hexane, petroleum ether, ethanol) and steam distillation were used to extract saffron petal essential oil (SPEO). It was found that organic solvent extraction (ethanol) had the highest extraction rate and the most apparent bacteriostatic effect. SPEO-Ms were prepared using the composite condensation method with gelatin and chitosan. The microstructure, encapsulation efficiency, slow-release performance, infrared spectrum, and thermal stability of the SPEO-Ms were evaluated. The results showed that the microencapsulated essential oil had good bacteriostatic properties. Antimicrobial cotton fabric was prepared by impregnating microcapsules onto cotton fibers. The effects of the microcapsules’ concentration on the whiteness, air permeability, moisture permeability, and bacteriological inhibition of the fabric were investigated. The results revealed that SPEO-Ms have the potential to be used as a new antimicrobial agent in textiles.

In continuous kraft pulping, key quality indicators such as Kappa number and pulp viscosity are usually measured offline at low frequency, which limits real-time quality monitoring and control. Although data-driven soft sensors have shown potential for quality prediction, their performance is often restricted by limited labeled data and weak physical consistency. In addition, existing studies have focused mainly on single-target prediction, while the coupled prediction of Kappa number and pulp viscosity remains insufficiently explored despite their common dependence on cooking conditions and degradation kinetics. To address these issues, this study proposes a physics-guided multi-task learning framework (PG-MTL) for simultaneous prediction of Kappa number and pulp viscosity. The model combines a hard-parameter-sharing multi-task architecture with a physics-guided monotonicity constraint that enforces the expected non-increasing Kappa trend with increasing H-factor. Homoscedastic uncertainty weighting is also used to balance the two regression tasks during optimization. Experiments on industrial operating data show that PG-MTL achieved $R^2$= 0.920 for the Kappa number and $R^2$ = 0.910 for pulp viscosity. Compared with the strongest benchmark model, RMSE was reduced by 23.2% and 29.5% for the Kappa number and pulp viscosity, respectively. These results demonstrate that PG-MTL provides an effective and physically consistent solution for pulp-quality soft sensing under small-sample industrial conditions.

Cherry blossom extract (CBE) is rich in natural antioxidants; however, the poor release of bound bioactive compounds and the instability of the extract itself limit its further application. This study aimed to improve the antioxidant activity and stability of CBE by combining mixed-culture solid-state fermentation with microencapsulation. Using total phenolic content (TPC) as the primary response variable, we optimized the solid-state fermentation conditions for a mixed culture of Bacillus subtilis and Monascus purpureus via single-factor experiments combined with the Box–Behnken response surface method. Extracts prepared under these optimal conditions were then microencapsulated using a gelatin–chitosan co-precipitation method, and their antioxidant activity and in vitro release behavior were evaluated. The optimal fermentation conditions were an inoculation amount of 10.5%, an inoculation proportion of 1.3:1 (w/w), and a fermentation time of 7.3 days, producing a total phenolic content (TPC) of 38.49 ± 0.41 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight (DW). After 150 h, the micro-capsules had released 49.6% of their bioactive contents, with 50.4% remaining encapsulated. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that the mixed-culture fermentation extract exhibited higher antioxidant activity than both the single-strain extract and the non-fermented control, thereby overcoming key application bottlenecks of CBE.