Production of poly lactic acid based nanofibers enriched with essential oils of sujuk spice mixture by solution blow spinning method

Innovative packaging technologies developed to extend shelf life of food and slowing down the food spoilage are great importance in reducing food-borne waste. Nanotechnology is also often used in the development of food packaging. Thanks to biodegradable properties that can be integrated into packaging developed by nanotechnological methods, environmental damage can be reduced compared to petro-chemical-based packaging. Designed packages and systems are should be functional and have an economical and easy-to-produce method to be used in industry. Nanofiber fabrication by solution blowing spinning method is promising in terms of its easy applicability in industry, low cost, biodegradable materials. In this study, it was aimed to determine the fabrication and characterization of bioactive components in polylactic acid (PLA) based nanofiber that have biodegradable properties by the SBS method. Essential oil of the spice mixture that consisting of red pepper, cumin and pepper as the bioactive components was gained from the spice mixture by clevenger system. PLA-based polymer solution that was added to the gained essential oil with different concentrations from %5 to %30 was used for fabrication of nanofiber. After the fiber was fabricated, the average fiber diameters of the nanofiber that contains essential oil and contain only PLA were measured to examine their morphological character by SEM analysis. It has been found that the essential oil is homogeneously dispersed in nanofiber structure and it has a smooth structure. The average fiber diameter was found 71.15 nm in PLA-based nanofiber and 58.17-107.35 nm in nanofiber with essential oil added. Surface roughness of nanofibers was analyzed by AFM analysis and similar results were observed by SEM analysis. Primarily, glass transition, crystallization and melting temperatures of nanofibers were determined to define thermal characterization by DSC analysis. It has been found that the crystallization temperature is decreased with an increase in the concentration of essential oil. It has been observed that the addition of essential oil increases the thermal stabilization of the nanofiber by TGA analysis. Antioxidant activity in nanofiber is been found variable range from 26% to 40% according to increased concentrations of essential oil by antioxidant activity analyses performed by DPPH inhibition method. Antioxidant activity of PLA-based nanofiber has been found as 4%. As a result, the study showed that adding spice essential oil to nanofiber with PLA content can be well dispersed to the nanofiber structure. Thanks to its essential oil content, nanofibers also showed antioxidant activity.