Development of bioactive material by using pistacia vera hull

The increasing demand of the consumers for the products with less chemical content boosted the efforts of food manufacturers and scientists to develop ecofriendly, biodegradable food packaging materials obtained from natural sources. Among the candidate food packaging materials, food byproducts have gained priority since the utilization of these byproducts provide also additional environmental and economic favor. Every year, tons of pistachio hulls are separated from pistachio seeds and disposed of as waste products. In this study, chitosan films containing different amounts of pistachio hull methanol extract (%2, %4, %8 w/v) were produced. The antioxidant activities of chitosan films and pistachio hull extract were examined. The antibacterial activity of obtained chitosan films and pistachio hull extract were determined on L.monocytogenes, C.difficile, E.coli ATCC25922, E. coli type1, Enterococcus sp., E.faecalis ATCC29212, P.aeruginosa ATCC27853, S.aureus, S.aureus ATCC25923, Salmonella sp by agar diffusion assay. Chitosan films with 8% extract showed antibacterial activity on L.monocytogenes, C.difficile, Enterococcus sp., E. coli type1, P.aeruginosa ATCC27853, S.aureus, Salmonella sp. The highest inhibition was observed on C.difficile. The antioxidant activities of chitosan films were increased significantly with the increasing amount of extract. The results indicated that the methanol extract obtained from pistachio hulls enhanced the antioxidant and antibacterial activity of edible chitosan films. Methanol extract of P.vera hulls can be used as an environmentally friendly, bioactive supportive material in food packaging. Key Words: Pistachio Hull, Pistacia vera L., Bioactive Film, Food Packaging.