Antioxidant and antimicrobial activity of bioactive chitosan films.

Abstract

Interest in the development of films for food preservation is increasing due to the improvement achieved in the food preservation time with the advent of new packaging technologies. Chitosan is a widely used biopolymer produced from the deacetylation of chitin, which has a good capacity to form suitable films as food packages. On the other hand, bioactive compounds such as gallic acid and salicylic acid act as inhibitors of the oxidant activity of free radicals and delay the decomposition of food. In this sense, the preparation of chitosan films modified with the mixture incorporation of salicylic acid/sorbitol or gallic acid/Tween 80 was proposed, using sorbitol or Tween 80 as plasticizers. Both films (chitosan/gallic acid/Tween 80 and chitosan/salicylic acid/sorbitol) showed a good antioxidant capacity in while the chitosan/gallic acid/Tween 80 film evidenced its antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 causing a diminution of unit forming colony