Plasma-Engineered Plantain Peel (Musa paradisiaca) Starch Films: Enhancement of Mechanical, Thermal and Barrier Properties

Abstract

Food packaging is an essential component to protect, preserve and handle the food from extrinsic factors. Plastic has been used as a packaging material because of its durability, versatility, light weight, cost-effectiveness and water resistance properties. There are different types of plastic such as high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). However, the detrimental impact of synthetic plastic on the environment has raised a serious concern from last two decades. The growing need to reduce the use of conventional plastic has increased the interest in sustainable and biodegradable packaging materials. In this study, plantain peel (Musa paradisiaca), an underutilized agro-industrial waste, was used as a starch source for the preparation of starch-based films. Starch is extracted from plantain peel using an alkaline extraction method and characterized to evaluates its properties. Although, starch-based films are biodegradable, they generally exhibit inferior functional properties compared to synthetic plastic. Atmospheric cold plasma (ACP) is a physical modification technique used to modify the starch-based films to enhance its properties. ACP treatment influenced surface roughness, hydrophobicity, tensile strength, and elongation-at-break. The results indicate that plasma engineered films exhibits enhanced the properties, demonstrating its potential as sustainable packaging material.