Abstract:
Ethiopian false banana, locally known as “enset”, is an indigenous vegetable tree native to southern Ethiopia and mainly uti lized as a food source. In this study, we investigated the possibility of using cellulose extracted from Ethiopian false bananas
for bioplastic production and its application for food packaging. Ethiopian false bananas contain around 67.63% of cellulose
in a dry weight base. Cellulose was extracted by a combination of alkaline treatment by 1 M NaOH and bleaching by H2O2
and the flm was produced by solution casting method. To improve the strength of the flms, POSS and chitosan are added
in diferent amounts (10, 25. 35, 50, 75%) and glycerol is used as a plasticizer. The efect of the fllers on the mechanical
properties, morphological structure, biodegradability, and thermal stability was investigated. The increase of the fller (POSS
and chitosan) content led to an increase in the flm’s tensile strength and thermal stability. However, when the content of
POSS and chitosan was increased to 75%, the tensile strength decreased. The tensile strength of flms containing cellulose
and POSS was 25.9–36.801 Mpa, and CCHs flms containing cellulose and chitosan was 22.7–34.45Mpa. Cellulose flms
which have POSS as fller show improved tensile strength than the flm having chitosan. However, the addition of glycerol
slightly lowers the tensile strength of the flms (13.911–21.699 Mpa) but fexibility is improved, as indicated by a signifcant
increase in percent elongation (13.127–25.2%).
