"ISOLATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF CELLULOSE FROM VARIOUS FOOD-GRADE MACROALGAL SPECIES"

Cellulose has become one of the most popular natural materials for food packaging.It is an ideal alternative for ecofriendly packaging since it is biodegradable.Cellulose content was determined in various food grade seaweed samples from Mandapam, Tamilnadu, such as red (Kappaphycus alvarezii, Gracilaria edulis and Gelidiella acerosa) and brown seaweeds (Sargassum wightii and Turbinaria ornate).In the present work, each sample was subjected to various procedures for yielding an efficient amount of cellulose, such as two-step isolation, solvent, mechanical, repeated acidbase treatment, and holocellulose methods.The yield was found to be highest for the mechanical method, which involved minimal requirement of chemicals, whereas the other techniques resulted in a comparatively lower cellulose proportion because of severe chemical treatment.ATR-FTIR and SEM examination revealed the functional groups and morphology of the isolated cellulose.This is the first study to compare possible cellulose-containing seaweed groups and validate them using ATR-FTIR analysis.