Potato Starch Edible Films as Environmentally Friendly Carriers for Model Drug: In vitro Release Study

Starch is a vital plant polymer used in thousands of food and non-food products. Researchers have made great efforts over the past 20 years to develop ingredients based on nature which enhance starch texture and nutritional values. Starch has many non-food applications, ranging from body care to medicinal applications, among its uses in other foodstuffs. Since starch is sustainable and environmentally friendly material, in many chemical applications, including plastics, detergents and glues, it can serve as a good substitute for fossil-fuel components. This work aims to introduce edible starch films-based carriers for supporting the release of fluorescein as a model drug. Physical modification for potato starch carriers (PSS) was done by incorporating glycerol and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) molecules. Fluorescein dye was incorporated in edible films to investigate the amount of release by UV-vis technique. It was found that PSS-LDPE is spread better than LDPE at physiological temp