Sustainable active packaging from regenerated cellulose from pineapple leaf waste for prolonging storage life of fresh produce

Pineapple leaf is an agricultural waste, causing environmental problems on agricultural land. Pineapple leaves contain 70-82% cellulose, 18% hemicellulose and 5-12 % lignin.  Pineapple leaf fiber, which is rich in cellulose, inexpensive and abundantly available, has the potential for the industrial uses and may have potential economic impact. In this research, regenerated cellulose from pineapple leaf waste was used to develop sustainable pineapple leaf paper (PLP) as active packaging to be used as ethylene scavenger for prolonging storage life of fresh produce. Pineapple leaf pulp were blended with distilled water and  0, 50, 150 and 250% (w/w) active carbon was added and the paper was dried to the final moisture content of 3-5 %. It was found that the more the amount of active carbon the higher the concentration of ethylene to be adsorbed, while control sample did not adsorb ethylene.   This result confirms the commentaries of previous report for the efficiency of active carbon to be used as ethylene scavenger