Antibacterial Evaluation of Starch and Chitosan Based Polymeric Blend

Abstract

Demand of food safety, quality and environmental concern associated with the handling of plastic waste has emphasized antimicrobial packaging, as one of the promising packaging system. Development of biodegradable and edible films based on natural polymers such as starch has been considered as economical material for antimicrobial packaging. This work aimed at the development of food packaging based on starch blended with chitosan as antimicrobial and gluteraldehyde as crosslinker. Blend of starch (ST) and chitosan (CHI) crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (4ml of 2% aqueous solution) is prepared. The common solvent 1% aqueous solution of acetic acid is used for the preparation of polymeric blend of chitosan and starch in the ratio of 5.5. agent. Chitosan has been extensively used as an antimicrobial agent either alone or blended with other natural polymers (1,2), because of its biodegradable, nontoxic and antimicrobial nature (3). To extend chitosan's antimicrobial applicability, blend of starch (ST) and chitosan (CHI) are used in food packaging and biomedical applications (2, 3), but barriers still exist to its broader use due to its physical and chemical limitations (3, 4, 5, 6). The antibacterial property of the blended film is observed along with their controls against two Gram-negative pathogenic and non pathogenic bacteria. The pathogenic bacterium is Salmonella enterica and the non pathogenic bacterium is Escherichia coli. The blend is found effective against pathogenic bacterium as well as non pathogenic bacterium i.e. Salmonella enterica & Escherichia coli both.