No abstract

Corn starch var. Paragon from Indonesia and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) were used to develop bionanocomposite film containing different types of plasticizers [glycerol (G) or sorbitol (S)] incorporated with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) (0, 3, 5 wt.%) via casting method. The main objective of this study was to improve the properties of the bionanocomposite film with incorporated different types of plasticizers and ZnO NPs. The physicochemical properties of the film were systematically characterized. The results showed that the incorporation of sorbitol could significantly enhance the value of tensile strength, elongation, and Young's modulus than glycerol. In general, a higher concentration of ZnO NPs in the film could increase the tensile strength, reduce the water vapor permeability, decrease the water solubility, and influence the morphology, crystallinity, functional groups, and thermal stability of the films. The data showed that corn starch bionanocomposite film containing sorbitol with 5 wt% ZnO NPs was the most optimal film as compared to other formulations as the solubility and water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) value significantly reduced, and also it increased the value of tensile strength, elongation, and Young's modulus. It can be concluded that the incorporation of glycerol or sorbitol plasticizers reinforced by ZnO NPs plays an important role in improving the properties of bionanocomposite film, hence the film has the potency to be used as sustainable and environmental friendly packaging.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) has many health benefits; however, drinking of VCO directly is still uncommon. In order to overcome this problem, microencapsulation can be one of the solutions. Unfortunately, emulsion is an unstable system and rapidly separates into two layers. Therefore, in this study, we carried out the explanatory research of microencapsulation process with descriptive analysis. It comprised two emulsion treatments, using homogenization method, and three drying techniques, to determine the effect of Pickering emulsion with microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and different drying techniques on the characteristics of VCO powder (before drying: creaming index and emulsion droplet size; and after drying: drying yield, color intensity, moisture content, particle morphology, microencapsulation efficiency, peroxide value, rehydration particle size, and dissolving time). The results demonstrated that all emulsion treatments did not depict any emulsion instability up to 21 days of storage, and the obtained VCO powders had different characteristics. The highest microencapsulation efficiency was 33.49±1.59%, obtained from the emulsion using Tween 80 and MCC by spray drying, and the lowest peroxide value was 0.464±0.084 mEq O2/kg, obtained from the emulsion using Tween 80 and MCC by vacuum drying. The future application of this study is expected to produce VCO powder that can improve the ease handling of VCO and also commercialize for being used as a non-dairy creamer.

Sago starch has weaknesses such as low thermal stability and high syneresis. Modifications were made to improve the characteristics of native sago starch. In this study, sago starch was modified by autoclave-heating treatment (AHT), osmotic-pressure treatment (OPT), octenyl-succinic anhydride modification (OSA), and citric acid cross-linking (CA). This study aimed to examine the changes in chemical composition, crystallinity, and functional properties of the native sago starch after physical and chemical modifications. The results show that physical modification caused greater granule damage than chemical modification. All modification treatments did not alter the type of crystallinity but decreased the relative crystallinity of native starch. New functional groups were formed in chemically modified starches at a wavelength of 1700–1725 cm−1. The degree of order (DO) and degree of double helix (DD) of the modified starches were also not significantly different from the native sample, except for AHT and OPT, respectively. Physical modification decreased the swelling volume, while chemical modification increased its value and is inversely proportional to solubility. AHT and OPT starches have the best freeze–thaw stability among others, indicating that both starches have the potential to be applied in frozen food.

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is a modification of natural cellulose derived from plants or fermentation products such as nata de coco, by increasing the crystallinity, aspect ratio, surface area, dispersion, and biodegradability through the acid hydrolysis process, which is widely used in the food sector and pharmaceuticals. The variables of the methods and hydrolysis reagents used will affect the characteristics of MCC. The objective of this study was to determine the characteristics of MCC from nata de coco using different acids consisting of two treatments which are hydrolysis with 2.5 N hydrochloric acid (MCC HCl ) and 62.5 wt% maleic acids (MCC MA ). The results showed that the use of different hydrolysis reagents produced different MCC characteristics.Hydrolysis of cellulose with hydrochloric acid produced MCC with a higher crystallinity index, degradation temperature, particle size, and zeta potential value but the decomposition temperature was lower than that of MCC from maleic acid. Both MCC have a narrow particle size distribution and an irregular shape with a more uneven fiber surface texture of the MCC MA and contain C O and C C groups that are not present in MCC HCl . The viscosity of MCC HCl combined with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) 12% was higher than that of MCC MA under the same conditions, where the addition of both MCC with a concentration of 5% into the oil-in-water emulsion (O/W) showed good stability for 3 months, but at a concentration of 1.5% showed with creaming in the O/W emulsion with MCC HCl and no O/W emulsion was formed with MCC MA . Both MCC without the addition of CMC showed better characteristics than commercial MCC.