Abstract

Physico-chemical properties of tragacanth gum-based films

Author(s): M.Rezaei Taghiabadi, N.Maftoonazad, F.Badii, S.E.Hosseini, Hosahalli Ramaswamy

Emulsion coatings were formulated and films were developed using tragacanth gum as the basic structural component. Preliminary experiments were carried out to determine the proper concentration of tragacanth gum, lipid and plasticizers in the film. The effects of tragacanth gum, oil and glycerol concentration on water vapor permeability (WVP), mechanical properties and opacity (OP) of the films were evaluated using the response surface methodology.WVP increased by tragacanth and glycerol concentration and was decreased by oil concentration. Increasing the amount of tragacanth gumand decreasing the glycerol and oil concentration increased tensile strength (TS) while elongation at break (EB) increased by increasing both tragacanth and glycerol concentration and decreased by increasing oil concentration. Oil was the most influential factor that affected opacity, which increased with increasing oil concentration. Models developed forWVP, EB, TS and OP had high coefficient ofmultiple determination (R2) values (0.983, 0.952, 0.824, 0.94) respectively