Antioxidant composite films with chitosan and carotenoid extract from Chlorella vulgaris: optimization of ultrasonic-assisted extraction of carotenoids and surface characterization of chitosan films

Recently, there is an increasing interest towards the application of bioactive natural polymer based packaging materials instead of synthetic polymers. Therefore, the aim of this work was to investigate to edible, biodegradable and antioxidant chitosan film incorporated with carotenoid extracts from Chlorella vulgaris. Firstly, green extraction technology, ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) was applied for the extraction of lutein, beta-carotene, and alpha-carotene from Chlorella vulgaris. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used for optimizing the extraction parameters of alpha-carotene,beta-carotene and lutein. The maximum yields of lutein, beta-carotene, and alpha-carotene were 4.844 +/- 0.780, 0.258 +/- 0.020 and 0.275 +/- 0.040 mg g(-1), respectively. Secondly, the produced chitosan films were characterized by FT-IR and SEM techniques. And also the release study of chitosan films was investigated according to the total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity methods. Moreover, the addition of carotenoid extract significantly improved biodegradable films that can be used as a packaging material and patches because of its antioxidative properties.