CASSAVA LEAVES AS PACKAGING MATERIALS

New packaging materials made from cassava leaves (CLs) were successfully prepared having desirable sheet properties. The CLs were treated with various concentrations of NaOH solution (mercerization), prior to the sheet making process. Several characterization methods were applied to elucidate the performance of the mercerized CLs. The results show that the tear index of 15% mercerized CLs is comparable to that of available paper or plastic sheets,having low moisture uptake, good wetting time, smooth sheet formation and non-toxicity. It is expected that the use of CLs as packaging material could reduce the dependency on paper and plastic based packaging.