Extraction and development of starch-based bioplastics from Prosopis Juliflora Plant: Eco-friendly and sustainability aspects

As synthetic or petroleum-based plastics create a severe environmental impact, it is very essential to produce eco-friendly bioplastics to meet the needs of both the commercial and industrial sectors. Several starch-based bioplastics were already developed by researchers. However, most of them were produced from food grains such as corn, potato, rice, and so on. In this paper, an attempt is made to extract starch from Prosopis juliflora and to develop sustainable bioplastics from the extracted starch. Six samples with different compositions are prepared. Each sample is replicated 10 times and hence a total of 60 samples are prepared. Various tests such as tensile test, water solubility test, water absorption test, water contact angle test, biodegradability test, and morphological analysis were conducted. The test results reveal that the proposed starch-based bioplastics would be a better alternative material to be used in packaging industries. Further, the usage of Prosopis juliflora would also reduce the environmental impact significantly.