PREPERATION AND EVALUATION OF GUAR GUM AND ITS DERIVATIVE BASED BIODEGRADABLE FLIMS

Abstract

Guar Gum and its derivatives constitutes a large source of materials for applications in the diverse fields, taking advantage of their specific properties (in particular, renewability, biodegradability and biological activity for some of them), especially in the domain of packaging, edible films, tissue engineering, drug vehicles, visco-supplementation, controlled release of drugs, etc. In this work we are preparing blend biodegradable green films of Guar gum and its derivative, using polymers both from natural sources and synthetic ones and evaluate their properties, characteristics and their potential applications in areas of packaging, edible films, biomedical and pharmaceutical. Characterization of synthesized films is carried out using different characterization techniques like FTIR, SEM. Other studies such as swelling-solubility studies in various media and biodegradation studies and their physical properties like mechanical strength using UTM have also been evaluated. FT-IR studies indicate that there is the intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions, i.e. –OH. . .2OOC– in GG/NaAlg, GG/PVA and CMGG/PVA blends. The blend films also exhibited the improved mechanical properties compared to those of homopolymers. The Carboxymethylated Guar Gum/PVA blend films were also cross linked with calcium chloride. The effect of introduction of calcium chloride on the miscibility, morphology and physical properties of the blend films has also been investigated.