Design and development of Biodegradable polymers from Renewable agricultural resources

Abstract

newline Biopolymers are derived from natural renewable resources, and their importance has grown over the last decade because they spotlighted as means to saving fossil fuels, reducing CO2 emission and plastic wastes. The production of bioplastics from agricultural resources has been increasing, due to their biodegradability. This property has created the demand for packaging and it is rapidly increasing among retailers and the food industry at large scale. The present study highlights the bioplastic production, applications, fermentation process development and use of cheap substrates for bioplastics production. The seeds of tamarind (TM) (Tamarindus indicus), Mango kernel (MK) (Mangifera indica) and Mesquite seed (MQ) (Prosopis juliflora) which were considered as waste in the agricultural resources have been primarily screened for the starch composition in them. 84.69 wt%, 72.24 wt% and 23 wt% for TM, MK and MQ seeds respectively. The MQ seeds have shown low in starch content among the other two sources, but have 35% of total sugar. The starch was extracted by solvent in a soxhlet extractor, the yield % from TM, MK and MQ samples were 98 %, 90 %, and 89%, respectively. The extracted starch was characterized for its bulk density, swelling index, pH, thermal stability and functional group identification. The thermal stability of TM, MK and MQ starch was assessed by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and their results showed that the TM starch (43% residue) had higher thermal stability than MQ starch (30% residue) and MK starch (42% residue).