Incorporation of Plants Extracts and Essential Oils into Starch-Based Films: A Comprehensive Review

Given the global environmental issues associated with petroleum-based packaging materials, developing green packaging films is a promising innovative approach to packaging food products. In this regard, starch films added with plant extracts and essential oils have been explored for different packaging types of food products. The availability of starch in nature makes starch films a cheap substitute for petroleum-based packaging material, thus reducing the impact on the environment, packaging costs, and complexity. Recent investigations emphasize identifying and isolating natural ingredients from different plants for use in starch-based green packaging. Plant extracts and essential oils influence the mechanical and barrier properties and impart antioxidant and antimicrobial properties to the developed films. These films show promising applications in the food industry. This review provides recent insights into the effects of plant extracts and essential oils on starch-based green packaging films' properties.