Development and characterization of natural sourced bioplastic for food packaging applications

Climate change and increased pollution caused by traditional petrochemical plastics made the biodegradable environment-friendly plastic (bioplastic) research more popular. Bioplastics can be manufactured from natural renewable ingredients and used as food packaging material without harming the environment. This research work focuses on developing bioplastic films from natural ingredients such as starch of tamarind seeds, and berry seeds, with licorice root. Attention has been paid to characterizing the material by biodegradability, mechanical testing, Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), antimicrobial analysis tests. Phenolic compounds present in the berry seeds starch increased the soil biodegradability as well as the mechanical and thermal properties of the bioplastic films. The FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of various bio-molecules. Improved antimicrobial performance is also obtained. The results of this research confirm that the prepared bioplastic samples can be used in packaging applications.