Hussain Rabbia, Aziz Athar, Amin Rashid, Khurshid Asma
Department of Biotechnology, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan.
School of Environment and Life Sciences, Biomedical Research Centre, University of Salford, M5 4WT, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2025;26(4):550-563. doi: 10.2174/0113892010304507240528064315.
Commercial plastics are potentially hazardous and can be carcinogenic due to the incorporation of chemical additives along with other additional components utilized as brominated flame retardants and phthalate plasticizers during production that excessively produce large numbers of gases, litter, and toxic components resulting in environmental pollution.
Biodegradable plastic derived from natural renewable resources is the novel, alternative, and innovative approach considered to be potentially safe as a substitute for traditional synthetic plastic as they decompose easily without causing any harm to the ecosystem and natural habitat. The utilization of undervalued compounds, such as by-products of fruits and vegetables in the production of biodegradable packaging films, is currently a matter of interest because of their accessibility, affordability, ample supply, nontoxicity, physiochemical and nutritional properties. Industrial food waste was processed under controlled conditions with appropriate plasticizers to extract polymeric materials. Biodegradability, solubility, and air test analysis were performed to examine the physical properties of polymers prior to the characterization of the biofilm by Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for the determination of polymeric characteristics.
The loss of mass examined in each bioplastic film was in the range of 0.01g to 0.20g. The dimension of each bioplastic was recorded in the range of 4.6 mm to 28.7 mm. The existence of -OH, C=C, C=O stretching, and other crucial functional groups that aid in the creation of a solid polymeric material are confirmed by FTIR analysis. This study provides an alternative approach for sustainable and commercially value-added production of polymeric-based biomaterials from agro-industrial waste as they are rich in starch, cellulose, and pectin for the development of bio-plastics.
The rationale of this project is to achieve a straightforward, economical, and durable method for the production of bio-plastics through effective utilization of industrial and commercial fruit waste, ultimately aiding in revenue generation.
商业塑料具有潜在危害，且可能致癌，因为在生产过程中会加入化学添加剂以及用作溴化阻燃剂和邻苯二甲酸酯增塑剂的其他成分，这些成分会过度产生大量气体、垃圾和有毒成分，从而导致环境污染。
源自天然可再生资源的可生物降解塑料是一种新颖、替代且创新的方法，被认为可能是安全的，可替代传统合成塑料，因为它们易于分解，不会对生态系统和自然栖息地造成任何危害。利用诸如水果和蔬菜副产品等被低估的化合物来生产可生物降解包装薄膜，目前因其易获取、价格低廉、供应充足、无毒、具有物理化学和营养特性而备受关注。工业食品废料在受控条件下与适当的增塑剂一起进行处理，以提取聚合物材料。在通过傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）对生物膜进行表征以确定聚合物特性之前，进行了生物降解性、溶解性和空气测试分析，以检查聚合物的物理性质。
在每个生物塑料薄膜中检测到的质量损失在0.01克至0.20克范围内。每个生物塑料的尺寸记录在4.6毫米至28.7毫米范围内。FTIR分析证实了有助于形成固体聚合物材料的-OH、C = C、C = O伸缩振动以及其他关键官能团的存在。本研究提供了一种替代方法，可从富含淀粉、纤维素和果胶的农业工业废料中可持续且具有商业附加值地生产基于聚合物的生物材料，用于生物塑料的开发。
该项目的基本原理是通过有效利用工业和商业水果废料，实现一种简单、经济且耐用的生物塑料生产方法，最终有助于创收。
