Production of nanocellulose from corn husk for the development of antimicrobial biodegradable packaging film

Packaging is a potential way of keeping food products safe from various environmental pollutants, and biological, chemical, & physical deterioration. Hence, the demand for an effective antimicrobial active packaging material is increasing tremendously to improve the shelf-life of food products. Thus, we extracted nanocellulose from corn husks and developed a eugenol-incorporated biodegradable antimicrobial active packaging film. The extracted nanocellulose showed a particle size of 149.67 ± 3.56 nm and an overall surface charge of -20.2 mV ± 0.76 V. The film casting method is one of the promising methods to fabricate biodegradable films using plant-based biopolymers. Therefore, different concentrations of eugenol (0.5-5 % v/v) were incorporated to formulate the functional film (FF0.5-FF5) by employing the casting process. FF exhibited comparable tensile strength as compared to the control film (CF), however, FF5 showed the least tensile strength (85 MPa). Based on the mechanical characterization, the FF3 film sample was further selected for characterization. The morphological evaluation revealed that the surface of the film was smooth and non-porous with reduced moisture content and density. The film exhibited high thermal stability as the degradation occurred above 400 °C, indicating the strong hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl groups of the film. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis revealed the existence of -COOH vibration and COC stretching groups of cellulose and eugenol. The antimicrobial studies showed high efficacy against Staphylococcus aureus followed by Salmonella typhmurium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteria. Overall, eugenol-incorporated nanocellulose-based biodegradable packaging film could be an excellent candidate as an alternative to active packaging material and provide an opportunity for the efficient utilization of corn husk.