Mr. Arkasubhro Chatterjee will present his Pre-synopsis as per the detail below:

Date: 21st September 2023

Time: 0830 - 0930 hrs. 

Venue: IITB - Monash Research Academy

Supervisor: Prof. Amit Arora, Prof. Tony Patti and Prof. Phil Andrews

RPC Members: Prof. Sanjay Mahajani and Prof. Warren Batchelor

Title: Pectin-based films for antimicrobial/antifungal applications

Abstract:

There is, currently, an increased requirement for versatile biopolymer-based hydrogels for applications in drug delivery, food preservation etc. At the same time, the global production of fresh fruit for the year 2021 was estimated to be around 870 million metric tons. Approximately 20% of the total fruit produced are wasted due to post harvest losses. The current work is aimed at resolving both of these issues by employing green approaches to fabricate biodegradable pectin films derived from renewable fruit waste feedstocks. In this work we report a method for creating insoluble pectin films by crosslinking pectin with poly-ethylene glycol di-glycidyl ether (PEGDE). Furthermore, in order to improve the physico-chemical characteristics of the films, a physical blend of pectin with a complementary bio-polymer, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was also tested. The crosslinking led to the formation of films that were not only insoluble in water but showed significantly better tensile strength. The films fabricated were then combined with known antimicrobial agents such as Manuka Honey and Bismuth Chloride in order to test the effective ness of films in inhibiting microbial growth of known pathogens. This method for creating films with tuneable physical properties from pectin can solve dual problems of waste management and find further high value applications in fields like food preservation, drug delivery and other antimicrobial applications.