Antioxidant and antimicrobial sodium alginate/sodium carboxymethyl cellulose films loaded with self-assembled hesperidin nanorods for fruits preservation.

To develop green food packaging films, we prepared carrier-free hesperidin (HSD) nanoparticles by self-assembly technique and loaded them into Sodium Alginate (SA) and Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose (CMC) matrices to obtain the composite film. SEM and TEM imaging revealed that these nanoparticles exhibited a rod-like structure (hesperidin nanorods, HSD NRs). Compared to HSD, the water solubility and biological activity of HSD NRs were significantly higher. When HSD NRs were loaded into the SA/CMC film, the antibacterial ratios against S. aureus and E. coli were 91.20 % and 78.02 %, respectively. Moreover, the composite film showed good antioxidant activity against DPPH, ABTS, and Fe. The addition of HSD NRs significantly improved the film's barrier properties and mechanical strength. Therefore, the SA/CMC-HSD NRs film was more effective than the traditional polyethylene (PE) film in extending the shelf life. These results indicate that the SA/CMC-HSD NRs film holds great potential for fruit preservation.