Preparation, characterization and antimicrobial activity of polyvinyl alcohol/gum arabic/chitosan composite films incorporated with black pepper essential oil and ginger essential oil.

Natural materials have attracted increasing attention in wound dressing and food packaging process, which could overcome the serious environmental issues caused by conventional synthetic materials. Essential oils (EOs) such as black pepper essential oil (BPEO) and ginger essential oil (GEO) have extensively been reported for their nutritional and biomedical properties. In this study, biocomposite films based on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), gum arabic (GA) and chitosan (CS) incorporated with BPEO and GEO were fabricated by solvent casting method. FTIR, XRD, SEM and DSC were performed with mechanical and antimicrobial properties of PVA/GA/CS films with and without BPEO and GEO. The BPEO-PVA/GA/CS film showed heterogeneous rough surface with cavities containing entrapment of BPEO droplets, whereas, the GEO-PVA/GA/CS film showed heterogeneous rough surface with coarseness due to the incorporation of respective EOs. The BPEO and GEO incorporated PVA/GA/CS films were considerable resistant to breakage and flexible with improved heat stability. The BPEO and GEO incorporated PVA/GA/CS films were significantly inhibited the growth of Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. The obtained results have demonstrated that both BPEO and GEO incorporated PVA/GA/CS films are promising alternatives to wound dressing and food packaging materials.