Volume 35, Issue 12 e70048
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Investigation of the Physicochemical and Antibacterial Activities of Plant Extract of Juniperus communis L. With Poly(Butylene Adipate-Co-Terephthalate) Films for Food Packaging

Raja Venkatesan

Corresponding Author

Raja Venkatesan

School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea

Department of Biomaterials, Saveetha Dental College and Hospitals, SIMATS, Saveetha University, Chennai, India

Correspondence:

Raja Venkatesan ([email protected])

Seong-Cheol Kim ([email protected])

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Vishnuvarthanan Mayakrishnan

Vishnuvarthanan Mayakrishnan

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Srivilliputtur, India

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Eswaran Kamaraj

Eswaran Kamaraj

Department of Chemistry, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea

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Maher M. Alrashed

Maher M. Alrashed

Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Seong-Cheol Kim

Corresponding Author

Seong-Cheol Kim

School of Chemical Engineering, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Republic of Korea

Correspondence:

Raja Venkatesan ([email protected])

Seong-Cheol Kim ([email protected])

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First published: 22 December 2024
Citations: 3

Funding: This work was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea, 2020R1I1A3052258 and the Researchers Supporting Project Number (RSPD2024R774), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Raja Venkatesan, Vishnuvarthanan Mayakrishnan, and Eswaran Kamaraj contributed equally to this work.

ABSTRACT

In this work, a plant-based composite materials that can be used as food packaging has been developed. Juniperus communis L. extract, which is known to have good antibacterial activity, was added to poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) at different percentage (1%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%) and produced films by solution casting method. All the prepared PBAT films were subjected to characterization techniques like attenuated total reflection-infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), surface morphology, thermal stability, mechanical strength, film color, opacity, wettability, and antibacterial properties. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted on thermal stability of PBAT composite films. To examine the suitability of composite films for food packaging, measurements on opacity and water vapor permeability have been performed. It was determined that the higher the percentage of Juniperus communis L., which enhanced the test results. The PBAT composite films' antibacterial activity against both gram-positive (S. aureus) and gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria was tested. The optimum antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli was observed in the PBAT composite film with 20% of Juniperus communis L. plant extract. However, it can be supposed that the food packaging characteristics are improved by adding Juniperus communis L. plant extract to the PBAT.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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