Production of Biocomposite Films using Gum Arabic and Chitosan from Luffa Gourd for Food Packaging Applications

Most common food packaging are from nonbiodegradable and nonrenewable sources making them to be toxic to human, animals and their environment. It becomes paramount to search for alternate sources of food packaging materials. This study attended to reveal chitosan extracted from renewable agricultural waste (luffa sponge) chitosan was produced via three stages; proteinization, demineralization and deacetylation. The Produced chitosan was characterized for yield of 41.07%, which was a very high value from plant. The pH of 6.7 and degree of deacetylation of 33.2%. The FTIR result of the produced chitosan indicated the presence of –OH and –NH2 groups which are the main groups that constitute the active sites of the biopolymer. The TGA indicated that the chitosan is thermally stable while the morphological study of the chitosan derivative has shown it has a non-porous structure. The effect of chitosan reinforcement on the Gum Arabic (GA) matrix on mechanical and barrier properties has been studied for food packaging applications. Four different mixtures at chitosan (C) % were used to prepare the composite film with Gum Arabic: C-GA (5-95%), C-GA (10-90%), C-GA (15-85%) and C-GA (25-75%), respectively. The prepared composite films were subjected to morphological, mechanical strength, film thickness, water vapour permeability (WVP), and water uptake analysis. It has been observed that C-GA (15-85%) is well dispersed in the matrix (Image analysis via. SEM). Mechanical properties of the C-GA (15-85%) composite film evaluated indicated an increase in the strength. A film with more matrix showed less absorption of water as well as less water vapour permeability. The WVP test analysis revealed that film C-GA (15-85%) possesses the best barrier properties.