Chitosan Based Films Incorporated with Turmeric/Clove/Ginger Essential Oil for Food Packaging

The aim of this work was to produce chitosan based films which can be used as an effective packaging material. In order to produce a material like that chitosan was extracted from the crab shells by the process of demineralization, deproteinization and deacteylation and the obtained chitosan was made into a film with additives like Turmeric/ Clove/Ginger and gelatin. Plasticizer like glycerol was also added to obtain a transparent, stretchable, exquisite film which is a active packaging material and the film forming solution was used as a coating over the areca nut plates and cups to prevent the microbial spoilage and to increase the shelf life of them and then coating was also performed on fruits and vegetables to prevent spoilage and increase their shelf life. The film was checked for its thickness, transparency and stability. The physical, chemical and biological parameters were evaluated by performing the characterization studies like SEM, TG-DSC, TG-DTG, DSC and FTIR. The antioxidant, anticoagulant properties and cytotoxicity were tested to analyse and evaluate the quality of the film. The results state that the film has good thermal stability and through the results of FTIR it is proved that the film has functional groups of chitosan, gelatin, turmeric and other added components. And other results proved that the film is completely safe to be used as a food packaging material. Concerning/pertaining to the environmental issues and the effects of plastic films in human in terms of health and degradability conditions chitosan based films can bring about a change in the current packaging industry and the change could lead to better human and environmental health.