A hydroxypropyl methylcellulose/hydroxypropyl starch nanocomposite film reinforced with chitosan nanoparticles encapsulating cinnamon essential oil: Preparation and characterization

Properties and application of antioxidant and antibacterial composite films based on methylcellulose and spine grape pomace fabricated by thermos-compression molding

Methylcellulose (MC)/grape pomace (GP) films, plasticized with either glycerol (GLY) or cinnamon essential oil (CEO), were prepared by thermo-compression molding and characterized. Compared to the GLY-plasticized MC50/GP50 films, a considerable increase in TS and YM values of CEO-plasticized films was observed, rising from 9.66 to 30.05 MPa, 762 to 1631 MPa, respectively. Moreover, the water vapor barrier, surface hydrophobic properties, and antioxidant/antibacterial activities of CEO-plasticized films remarkedly improved with increasing CEO content from 5 to 15% w/w. From scanning electron microscopy, phase separation between GP and the MC/GLY mixture were evident for GLY-plasticized MC/GP films. On the other hand, the CEO-plasticized films showed compact morphologies, attributable to the formation of hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking interaction. Preliminary shelf-life study on showed that fresh chicken wrapped with the CEO-plasticized MC/GP films exhibited lower TVB-N, TBARS, and TVC values than the unwrapped control samples, during 7 d storage at 4 °C.

An effective preserving strategy for strawberries by constructing pectin/starch coatings reinforced with functionalized eggshell fillers

Food waste occurs frequently worldwide, though hunger and malnutrition issues have received global attention. Short-term spoilage of perishable foods causes a significant proportion of food waste. Developing simple, green, and low-cost strategies to preserve the freshness of perishable foods is important to address this issue and improving food safety. By using strawberries as the model perishable fruit, this study reported a pectin/carboxy methyl starch sodium (PC) based coating using epigallocatechin gallate-loaded eggshell powder (ES@EGCG) as the functional fillers. In comparison to PC coating, the PC-ES@EGCG coating displayed much-enhanced performance, such as enhanced mechanical (2 folds) and barrier (water vapor & oxygen) properties. This composite coating reduced the weight loss of strawberries from over 60% to around 30% after 7-day storage. Coated strawberries exhibit better freshness retention, which achieves the purpose of preserving strawberries during storage. This study provided a cost-effective and eco-friendly coating strategy for reducing food waste.

Starch/chitosan nanoparticles bionanocomposite membranes for methylene blue dye removal

This research aims to develop relatively new membranes from starch biopolymer incorporated with different concentrations (0, 5, 10, 15, 20% w/w of solid starch) of chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) that can be used for water treatment. The membranes were fabricated using the solvent casting method while the CNP was produced using the ionic gelation method. The membranes were characterized in terms of morphology, porosity, water vapor permeability (WVP), and water contact angle. The application of the membranes to treat water was demonstrated on methylene blue solution because methylene blue is a commonly used dye in many industries. It was found that the starch/10% CNP membrane was the optimum membrane for methylene blue dye treatment because the membrane exhibits a smooth surface, high WVP (1.67 × 10-10g Pa-1h-1m-1), high porosity (59.92%), low water contact angle value (44.8°), and resulted in the highest percentage removal of methylene blue (94.0%) after the filtration. After filtration, the starch/10% CNP membrane was still in good condition without breakage. In conclusion, the starch/CNP membranes produced in this study are promising for sustainable and environmentally friendly water treatment, especially for water containing methylene blue dye. This research aligns with current thematic trends in bionanohybrid composite materials utilization, offering innovative solutions for addressing water pollution challenges.

Starch biopolymer films containing chitosan nanoparticles: A review

Starch biopolymer films incorporated with chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) or starch/CNP films are promising alternatives to non-degradable food packaging materials. The films can be utilized for active food packaging applications because CNP exhibits antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, which can improve food shelf-life. Nonetheless, knowledge of the effects of CNP inclusion on the properties of starch films is not fully elucidated. This paper reviews the influences of various concentrations of CNP, sizes of CNP, and other additives on the mechanical, thermal, barrier, antimicrobial, antioxidant, biodegradability, and cytotoxicity properties of starch/CNP films as well as the mechanisms involved in relation to food packaging applications. The usage of starch/CNP films for active food packaging can help to reduce environmental issues and contribute to food safety and security.

Improvement of cross-linked films based on chitosan/diepoxy-poly (ethylene glycol) incorporating trans-cinnamaldehyde essential oil: Preparation, properties, and application in banana storage

In this study, development of bioactive coatings containing 1 % (w/v) chitosan (CS), 0.6 % (w/v) diepoxy-polyethylene glycol (PEG), and trans-cinnamaldehyde (CIN) was achieved. The physicochemical and biological properties of the coatings were investigated. The tensile strength, light transmission, water vapor permeability (WVP), and antibacterial properties were enhanced by the incorporation of CIN. The CIN-containing films appeared compact and rough, as observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In addition, the quality attributes of the bananas were evaluated at room temperature for 24 days, and the results showed that the CS/PEG/CIN coating delayed the respiration peak, weight loss, sugar content loss, and maintained firmness, color, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acid (TA), and the appearance of the bananas. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the bioactive coating significantly affected the respiration rate and weight loss of bananas.

An Overview of Polymeric Nanoplatforms to Deliver Veterinary Antimicrobials

There is an urgent need to find new solutions for the global dilemma of increasing antibiotic resistance in humans and animals. Modifying the performance of existing antibiotics using the nanocarrier drug delivery system (DDS) is a good option considering economic costs, labor costs, and time investment compared to the development of new antibiotics. Numerous studies on nanomedicine carriers that can be used for humans are available in the literature, but relatively few studies have been reported specifically for veterinary pharmaceutical products. Polymer-based nano-DDS are becoming a research hotspot in the pharmaceutical industry owing to their advantages, such as stability and modifiability. This review presents current research progress on polymer-based nanodelivery systems for veterinary antimicrobial drugs, focusing on the role of polymeric materials in enhancing drug performance. The use of polymer-based nanoformulations improves treatment compliance in livestock and companion animals, thereby reducing the workload of managers. Although promising advances have been made, many obstacles remain to be addressed before nanoformulations can be used in a clinical setting. Some crucial issues currently facing this field, including toxicity, quality control, and mass production, are discussed in this review. With the continuous optimization of nanotechnology, polymer-based DDS has shown its potential in reducing antibiotic resistance to veterinary medicines.

Development of biobased multifunctional films incorporated with essential oils@polydopamine nanocapsules for food preservation applications

A novel multifunctional soy protein isolate-carboxymethyl cellulose (SPI-CMC) based nanocomposite film was successfully prepared by introducing the polydopamine encapsulated essential oils (EOs@PDA) nanocapsules for food packaging. The EOs@PDA nanocapsules possessed smooth spherical morphology with good dispersion, and the particle size was about 283 nm. The influence of EOs@PDA nanocapsules on the physical, chemical and biological properties of EOs@PDA/SPI-CMC nanocomposite film was investigated. The EOs@PDA nanocapsules were crosslinked with SPI-CMC matrix and distributed uniformly in the matrix. The nanocomposite film with 1 wt% nanocapsules (EP/S-C) also showed excellent antioxidant activity (66.6 ± 0.3 % on DPPH and 98.6 ± 0.1 % on ABTS), superior UV-blocking properties (100 %), advanced antibacterial ability against E. coli and S. aureus, favorable biodegradability (>90 %) and relatively low In vitro cytotoxicity. Also, the EP/S-C nanocomposite film displayed potential to extend the shelf life of fresh cut apple slices (>24 h), perishable cherry tomatoes and blueberries (>6 days). The results suggested that the EOs@PDA/SPI-CMC nanocomposite film had a great possibility in the field of biodegradable and antimicrobial materials for food packaging.

Synergistic effects of EDTA and lysozyme on the properties of hydroxypropyl starch nano antibacterial films

Hydroxypropyl starch (HPS) nano antibacterial films incorporating Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid (EDTA) and lysozyme (LY) were fabricated via solvent casting method. The synergistic effects of EDTA and LY on the microstructure, component interactions, color, optical, mechanical, barrier and antibacterial properties of HPS nano antibacterial films were evaluated. The results indicated that EDTA and LY were well dispersed in the matrix of the HPS nano antibacterial films, the film-forming substrates have good compatibility, resulting in a dense multi-layer structure of the HPS nano antibacterial films. The addition of EDTA and LY increased the color parameters (L*, a*, b* and △E*) of the HPS nano antibacterial films. The synergistic effects of EDTA and LY significantly decreased the light transmission of the HPS nano antibacterial films. The presence of EDTA and LY increased the tensile strength (TS) and the elongation at break (EAB) of the HPS nano antibacterial films. The TS and EAB of E2.5L1 reached the highest values of 6.329 MPa and 50.24 %, respectively. The incorporation of EDTA and LY had positive effects on the improvement of water vapor permeability (WVP) and oxygen permeability (OP). The WVP and OP of E2.5L1 reached the highest values of 0.9350 × 10-12 g cm/cm2•s•Pa and 0.297 × 10 -2 g m/m2 •d, respectively. In addition, EDTA and LY had significant synergistic effects on the antibacterial activity against S. aureus (Gram-positive bacteria) and E. coli (Gram-negative bacteria). E2.5L1 exhibited the highest antibacterial activity and the inhibition zone diameters of S. aureus and E. coli were 3.69 mm and 4.28 mm, respectively. The HPS nano antibacterial films incorporating EDTA and LY are potential functional packaging materials.