Functional properties of taro starch reinforced polysaccharide based films for active packaging

The current study involves the fabrication of polysaccharide-based films containing Chitosan (CS)-Pullulan (PL) and Taro starch (TS), all derived from conventional sources. The extraction of starch from Taro (Colocasia esculenta) tubers was carried out by employing the wet-milling process in the laboratory. The main study was aimed at studying the influence of added TS into the CS-PL matrix through various characterization techniques such as mechanical, structural, spectroscopic, thermal, morphological and biological studies. The added TS was found to enhance the tensile strength as well as the crystallinity of the chitosan/pullulan (CP) blend films. The blend films showed a decline in the opacity values with the addition of TS. The effective interaction between the blended components indicated stronger intermolecular hydrogen bonding between them which was confirmed through FTIR and DSC studies. The thermal analysis depicted that the TS incorporated blend films degraded at a slightly higher temperature than the control film. The developed films were found to be hydrophobic in nature, with increasing hydrophobicity with increase in concentration of TS. The fabricated films were found to be biologically active i.e., antimicrobial and antioxidant, which is due to the presence of certain active compounds present in the taro tubers. These outcomes suggest that these films can be harnessed as active packaging ma-terials in the food industry.