Heat Effect on Antimicrobial Properties of Plasticizer PEG Blended Chitosan

Chitosan is the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, non-toxic, biocompatible, biodegradable, and bacteriostatic and fungistatic. Many researches have devoted on the development of new biodegradable materials especially films and coatings with its polysaccharides causing film-forming properties. The heating process during plasticization has been long known for its detrimental effects on a shelf life of chitosan and possibly its antimicrobial activity. In the study, we were interested in understanding of antimicrobial activity of chitosan after mixing with various amounts of plasticizer polyethylene glycol (PEG) under various temperatures but not further be plasticized chitosan films. From fifty percentages of chitosan obtained by deacetylation of chitin which was extracted from shrimp wastes. Chitosan was mixed with plasticizer PEG, incubated at room temperature, 40, 60, 80, or 100°C for 15 min, and observed for their microbial susceptibility. The results exhibited comparable effectiveness of the antimicrobial properties in chitosan and even quite lower in chitosan blended with PEG, in exhibiting antimicrobial activity. Additionally, antibacterial activities of chitosan blended with PEG were heat dependent. These overall data will be essential information for the development of antimicrobial films and coatings in food packaging with the extending shelf life.