The environmental problem due to plastic waste had become serious because it could not be recycled neither be degraded naturally by microbe in land. Thus, in the present study, a bioplastic was produced based on cassava starch as the matrix and cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) from Mangosteen peel as reinforcing filler. The CNC was added into the bioplastic with varied concentration at 1 g (BP2), 2.5 g (BP3), 5 g (BP4) and without CNC as BP1. The isolation of CNC followed series of steps (delignification, bleaching, hydrolysis and sonication) before added to the matrix. The effect of CNC addition towards mechanical properties was determined using universal testing machine (UTM) and analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Results showed that the FTIR analysis confirmed an absorption pattern of cellulose in the starch/CNC bioplastic matrix whereas the effect in tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break were compared to the pure bioplastic without CNC. The highest tensile strength peaked at 1.93 MPa while Young’s modulus at 26.82 GPa was observed for BP1. On the contrary, the addition of CNC fillers to the bioplastics increased the elongation at break and the density while the elongation at break reached the lowest percentage is 13.93% and the lowest density value is 952.5 kg/m3. Based on overall observation, this study proved that the addition of CNC on the other hand the mechanical properties showed the different result.
Since the ancient time, camphor’s tree has been used as one of the traditional medicines to cure wounds. It is believed to have active component that can heal the wounds. Therefore, the present study was undertaken to prepared crude extracts of camphor leaves with different polarity organic solvents using a hot extraction (Soxhlet) and cold extraction (maceration) method and assessing the antioxidant activity by the spectroscopic. The dried camphor leaves were crushed into powder form (size - 250 μm) and subjected to extraction using different polarity organic solvents such as hexane, chloroform and ethanol to extract chemical compounds from the leaves. DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) method was used to determine the antioxidant activity due to its characteristics as a stable free radical and acts as an indicator of scavenging activity. Quantitative analysis found that all extract shown a significant antioxidant activity. The ethanol extracts resulting highest antioxidant activities than other extracts. The highest inhibition percentage (87%) was found in the hot extraction method extracts compared to chloroform (40.4%) and hexane (12%) extracts, meanwhile cold extraction resulting to lower inhibition percentage. The yield obtained from cold extraction is higher than hot extraction. However, it contains higher impurities as compared to hot extraction. These finding is proven that camphor leaves with high antioxidant properties is suitable for medicine composition, especially related to cure wounds.
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