Investigation of Galactomannan/deacetylated Chitosan Nanocomposite Films and their Anti-bacterial Properties

A little packaging is a wonderful thing, a lot of packaging is a nightmare, particularly when landfills around the world threaten to engulf our living space. The topic of edible packaging is still of interest to the food industry and other organization funding research to solve packaging dilemmas. In this research, galactomannan (GM) was used as raw material and deacetylated chitosan (DE-ChN) was used as strengthening modifier to prepare GM based packaging films. The chemical structure of the composite film was analyzed with SEM and FTIR. The properties influence for films of different DE-ChN content were studied. The obtained GM/DE-ChN nanocomposite films showed superior hydrophobicity and high tensile strength. The nanocomposite films against Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae showed great antibacterial properties. Moreover, the GM and GM/DE-ChN nanocomposite film showed no toxicity to RAW264.7 macrophage cells. The final obtained GM/DE-ChN packaging film provides a foundation for the potentials for futural plastic packaging alternatives.