Thermo-mechanical and barrier properties of active sugar palm starch-chitosan biodegradable films containing Moringa oleifera

Starch-chitosan blend films with added antioxidants derived from plant extract are promising materials for active food packaging. This study aimed to synthesize active food packaging films based on chitosan/sugar palm starch with the addition of Moringa oleifera. To achieve the desired goals, sugar palm starch (SPS)-chitosan (CH) films containing Moringa oleifera (MO) were developed, and the structure, physicochemical, barrier, antioxidant activity, and biodegradability performance of the films were characterized. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that no new scattering peaks appeared, indicating that the addition of MO did not alter the microstructure of the CH/ SPS. All films exhibited ductile materials, where the addition of 1% MO increased tensile strength (TS) from 12.18 to 18.55 MPa while incorporating 3% MO increased elongation at break (EB) from 10.72 to 29.87%. The addition of MO increased the antioxidant activity from 17.47 to 48.65%. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) results indicated that the addition of 3% and 5% w/w MO produced a smoother film. It was concluded that CH/SPS -MO blend films exhibited excellent biodegradability, hence possess the potential for the intended application as an active film and can replace the use of pure CH/SPS film