Abstract

STUDIES ON BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES IN FUNGAL SPECIES DURING BIODEGRADATION OF LACTIC ACID BASED CURED FILMS

*Prachi Agarwal, Himanshu Sharma, R.K. Soni

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been a marked increase in use of biodegradable materials for use in packaging, agriculture, medicine, and other areas. As a result, many researchers are investing time in modifying traditional materials to make them more user-friendly, and designing novel polymer composites out of naturally occurring materials. In the present work, the copolymer of Lactic acid & Maleic anhydride with Propylene glycol has been synthesized and characterized using spectroscopic and other analytical techniques. The synthesized resin have been used for the development of films of different formulations and their fungal biodegradation was studied using different fungal species such as Trichoderma lignorum, Aspergillus niger & Rhizopus sps. The T. lignorum is able to degrade most and maximum weight loss is observed in film degradation. From the visual and SEM micrographs examination, it can be concluded that fungal degradation (Trichoderma), causes change in colour of the films and enhances brittleness of the films. The biochemical analysis of fungal strain T.lignorum degrading polyester films was studied by estimating the concentration of carbohydrates, protein, nitrogen and nucleic acids (biochemical constituents) in the blank PDA media and fungus grown in presence of films. It shows that the concentration of biochemical constituents is varied to the fungus grown in blank PDA media.

Keywords: Biodegradation; biodegradable polymer; casted films; fungal degradation; biochemical analysis; lactic acid.