Eco-friendly aloe vera blend chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol film-based for food packaging / Rabi’atul Husniah Farhana Shamsudin

Aloe vera is a medicinal plant with antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Aloe vera benefits include reducing dental plaque, accelerating wound healing, preventing wrinkles, and managing blood sugar. These beneficial therapeutic properties of Aloe vera have been employed for several commercial applications. Driven by the urgent need to replace current non-biodegradable packaging, research is turning to Aloe vera as a key ingredient in innovative polymer-based film solutions. Therefore, this study aims to prepare Aloe vera blend chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol film based for food packaging, and to determine the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of film via thickness test, moisture content test, total soluble matter test, swelling test, biodegradability test and tensile test. The film was successfully prepared using PVA, chitosan and aloe vera. In this study, by adding Aloe vera, the thickness of the film is decreased from 0.67 mm to 0.10 mm. The moisture content for combination of Aloe vera, chitosan and PVA is 11.02% which is low and suitable for food packaging application. The Total Soluble Matter for the prepared film is 37.76%. A lower percentage indicates slower dissolution in water which is good for food packaging. The film-based swelling test yielded a satisfactory result of 38.30%, indicating that the function and appearance of food packaging remain unaffected by low swelling percentages. Tensile test is 33.33% MPa indicate that adding Aloe vera will improve the mechanical strength. Overall, the prepared Aloe vera blend with chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol film as food packaging was successful.