Recent development on physical and biological properties of chitosan-based composite films with natural extracts: A review

Being credited with the most extensively studied polysaccharide polymer and promising candidate for versatile applications, chitosan has proved to be a standalone material with loads of diversified properties in various structural forms such as blends and composites. Considering the abundance of this biopolymer and its non-toxic nature, exploiting chitosan offers two-folded benefits – environment friendliness and fabrication as per the need. Alkaline deacetylation of chitin produces chitosan as a polymer that can be tuned to a great extent as per the requirement by altering the degree of deacetylation (DDA) and molecular weight (MW). This biopolymer has been widely investigated for potential application in the food and biomedical fields due to its antimicrobial and antibacterial properties. Chitosan based composite films incorporated with different natural extracts have shown significant enhancement in the physical and biological activities as reported by different studies. The current study reviews recent developments and investigations of chitosan based biocomposite films incorporated with different natural extracts emphasizing on the improvement of physical and biological properties and its applications.