Physico‐Mechanical Properties of Starch‐Based Films Containing Naturally Derived Antimicrobial Agents

Abstract

Thermoplastic starch (TPS) films containing relatively low [0.75 ± 0.08% (w/w)], intermediate [1.08 ± 0.04% (w/w)] and high [3.20 ± 0.29% (w/w)] levels of the antimicrobial (AM) agents carvacrol, linalool and thymol were prepared, and their physico‐mechanical and optical properties were evaluated. Addition of these AM agents to TPS film reduced the tensile strength with increasing AM agent content, with a significant effect observed at the highest AM agent concentration. The Young's modulus and elongation at break increased with increasing AM agent concentration, especially at the highest formulation concentration of AM agent. Films having a low or intermediate formulation concentration of AM agent exhibited no significant effect on their water vapour permeability, transparency and thermal properties when compared to the control film. Although scanning electron microscope imaging suggested a significant and progressive change in the surface morphologies of the films with AM agent concentration, the overall effects on the tested properties were not significant. This suggests that the direct incorporation of AM agents into TPS films did not adversely affect the films, particularly at lower AM agent concentrations. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Recent Advances on the Development of Antibacterial Polysaccharide-Based Materials

“…Furthermore, all the starch films containing the bioactive agents inhibited the Polysaccharides DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-03751-6_12-1 # Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014 bacterial growth in inoculated cheddar cheese, with the highest activity being reported for thymol, followed by carvacrol and linalool. However, as in most studies mentioned above, it was shown (Kuorwel et al 2014) that the increasing amounts of the antibacterial agents decreased the tensile strength of the films and increased the elongation at break. However, at low contents these three components did not drastically affect the transparency or the water vapor permeability and the morphology of the films.…”

“…One of the first approaches comprises the use of phenolic-rich plant extracts as will be highlighted by the following examples (Corrales et al 2009;Kuorwel et al 2014;Li et al 2013;Nouri and Mohammadi Nafchi 2014;Pyla et al 2010).…”

“…The incorporation of essential oils or some pure monoterpenic compounds into starch edible films has also been considered in several studies (Ehivet et al 2011;Kuorwel et al 2011Kuorwel et al , 2013Kuorwel et al , 2014. For example, Ehivet et al (2011) prepared sweet potato starch-based edible films by casting, containing origanum (Thymus capitatus) oil and different plasticizers (propylene glycol, sucrose, sorbitol, and glycerol), and evaluated their antibacterial properties against S. enteritidis, E. coli, and L. monocytogenes as well as their mechanical properties and water vapor permeability.…”

Effect of ultrafine talc on crystallization and end‐use properties of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyhexanoate)

“…The gas transmission rate or gas flux J , in cm 3 /m 2 day atm (for OTR and CO 2 TR) or g/m 2 day (for WVTR) of the specific test gas, is reported when equilibrium is reached (i.e., the concentration of test gas in the carrier gas changes less than 1% during a test cycle of 30 min). The gas flux J can be defined as the quantity of test gas or permeant Q , which passes through the polymeric film per unit area A during one unit of time t at equilibrium: …”

Use of herbs, spices and their bioactive compounds in active food packaging

“…were incorporated into thermoplastic starch (TPS) 133 . Authors reported that the direct incorporation of this additive into TPS films did not adversely affect the film properties, particularly at low linalool concentration.…”