RESEARCH PLAN

Bioplastic from Golden Apple Snail Shell Chitosan (Pomacea canaliculata) and
Arrowroot Starch (Maranta arundinacea) with Glycerin as Plasticizer

Cogasa, Verwen P., Nipas, Christian O., Penafiel, Angelica B., Quiane, Hannahniah S.,
Requio, Arnulfo Kier P., Teodoro, Maria Kyla P.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Ligao National High School – Senior High School

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Synthetic plastics have been very essential to human beings especially because of

its variety of uses in the society (Moura, 2017). The widespread use of this non-

biodegradable material, however, has been out of control causing a lot of environmental

problems and drawbacks. In fact, in the Philippines alone, it has been reported that

Filipinos throw out over 163 million sachets and 93 million plastic bags each day

(Subido, 2019). This is equal to almost 59.5 trillion sachets and 34 million plastic bags

per year.

Due to these ecological impacts, people have designed ways on how to minimize,

if not prevent, this problem to continually rise. More importantly, most researchers are

trying on different ways on how to make plastics into a biodegradable type. In the last

decades there has been an increasing interest in the development of renewable materials

with biodegradable properties in attempt to contribute to the sustainable development and

to reduce the environmental impact of non- biodegradable petroleum-based plastics

(Agustin and Padmawijaya, 2017).

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 Golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculate), on the other hand, are invasive

species deemed unhealthy to the farm ecology. According to the International Rice

Research Institute (IRRI), these species are considered as pests as they eat young and

emerging rice plants; Golden kuhol – in local language - cuts rice stems at its bases thus,

destroying the whole plant. Proven to have chitosan as a component of its shell and its

unimportance to the agriculture sector, the researchers decided to extract the said

chemical from said species and use it as main material for the study.

Chitosan reinforced with starch from Arrowroot will produce a bioplastic with

desirable mechanical properties. This was proven in the study of Hasan where he blended

corn starch and thermoplastic chitosan, and the result was a bioplastic characterized with

good endurance and durability. It is unidentified, however, on how the chitosan-starch

composition ratio extracted from the said materials will affect the mechanical properties

of the bioplastic.

The researchers came up with an idea to synthesize a bioplastic made from

Golden Apple Snail shell (Pomacea canaliculata) and Arrowroot tubers (Maranta

arundinacea) that contain chitosan and starch respectively, and to identify what chitosan-

starch percent composition will produce the most effective bioplastic.

This is the first study involving Golden kuhol and Arrowroot as primary materials

for producing bioplastic, and the understanding provided by this investigation would

greatly benefit the current society on how environmental problems we face nowadays

could be dealt with.

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Statement of the Problem

This study generally aims to produce a bioplastic from Golden Apple Snail shell

(Pomacea canaliculata) chitosan and Arrowroot starch (Maranta arundinacea).

Specifically, the research study seeks to answer the following questions:

1. Is there a significant difference between the quality of the bioplastics with

different chitosan-starch percent composition of mass in terms of:

a. tensile strength,

b. solvent uptake/ optimum absorbency, and

c. biodegradability?

Research Goals

The main goal of this study is to make a bioplastic out of Golden Apple Snail shell

(Pomacea canaliculata) and Arrowroot starch (Maranta arundinacea). Furthermore, the

researchers want to test whether what chitosan-stach ratio will yield the most effective

bioplastic in terms of tensile strength, solvent uptake, and biodegradability.

Expected Outcome

This study expects to produce a bioplastic from different percent composition of

mass between Golden Apple Snail shell (Pomacea canaliculata) and Arrowroot starch

(Maranta arundinacea). After that, we will choose the best among the five produced

bioplastics which will be proven in terms of various mechanical testing. Generally, we

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are looking forward to producing an effective bioplastic that can contribute to a healthy

and sustainable environment.

Hypotheses

Null Hypotheses

▪ There is no significant difference between the quality of the bioplastics with

different chitosan-starch percent composition in terms of tensile strength, solvent

uptake, and biodegradability.

Alternative Hypotheses

▪ There is a significant difference between the quality of the bioplastics with

different chitosan-starch percent composition in terms of tensile strength, solvent

uptake, and biodegradability.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Materials

Chitosan will be extracted from Golden Apple Snail shell (Pomacea canaliculata)

to be obtained from local farms, in coordination with PhilRice. The starch, meanwhile,

will be gained from the Arrowroot tubers. The plasticizer that will be used in the study is

glycerol; it will be bought from a local drugstore. Additionally, canola oil that will be

purchased from the market will be used as the hydrophobic liquid.

Procedure
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Preparation of Starch from Arrowroot

Arrowroot tubers will be washed using water. The peels will be removed using a

peeler. It will then be dried at room temperature and grinded until it becomes mushy. The

pulp that has been obtained will be filtered and allowed to stand for 50 minutes, to get the

precipitate. After sterilizing for 50 minutes, the sediment still mixed with the water is

filtered back to obtain wet starch deposition. The wet starch deposition will be dried in an

oven at 70’C for 30 minutes to obtain starch, which will be ready for use as a bioplastic

feedstock.

Extraction of Chitosan from Golden Apple Snail Shell

Snails will be washed with water, desiccated at room temperature, boiled to

separate the meat from shells, and dried under the sun. Then, bake the shells in a hot air

oven at 100oC for 1 hour. Remove loose tissues from the Golden Apple Snail Shell

wastes. Wash it with water and dry under normal temperature. Grind the Golden Apple

Snail shell waste to obtain a powdered form of the said material using a blender and crush

using a mortar and pestle. The Golden Apple Snail shell powder will then undergo the

following methods:

a. Deproteinization

Three grams (3 g) of golden apple snail shells powder will be weighed

with an analytical balance. Deproteinization will be carried out using 2M NaOH

with ratio of 20 ml:1g (w/v) at a room temperature for 2 hours using a mechanical

stirrer. The deproteinized product will be collected and washed with water and

filtered water until it has a neutral pH.

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 b. Demineralization

Demineralization will be carried out with diluted 2M HCl solution with

ratio of 20 ml:1g (w/v) at room temperature for 2 h using a mechanical stirrer.

The product will be washed to neutrality under water and filtered water.

c. Deacetylation

The product will be deacetylated with 50% NaOH with ratio of 20 ml:1g

(w/v) at high temperature 140oC. The treatment will be carried out for 2 hours

using a mechanical stirrer. Rinse with water and filtered water until it has neutral

pH. Boil it for another 4 hours, then filter. The deacetylated product will then be

dried in an oven at 100oC for 1 hour.

Bioplastic Synthesis

Bioplastic synthesis will be performed by weighing chitosan and starch in varying

percent composition of mass (100-0, 25-75, 50-50, 75-25, and 0-100 respectively). The

chitosan will be dissolved into 5% acetic acid while stirring with a magnetic stirrer. The

same thing will be applied on Arrowroot starch until all of it dissolves. Both solutions

with the pre-determined composition of five setups will be mixed in a beaker and added

with 20% of glycerol. Then, add 0.1% of canola oil to act as the hydrophobic liquid.

When the sample begins to form a gel, it will be poured into the mold and dried over the

hotplate at 75 ° C until all the solvents evaporate, and plastic films are obtained.

Bioplastic Mechanical Test

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 The synthesized bioplastic will be subjected into different tests that will identify

and verify its mechanical properties such as tensile test, solvent uptake test, and

biodegradation test all based from the methods of Hasan et. al. (2018).

Data Analysis

Different samples of synthesized bioplastic from Golden Apple Snail shell

(Pomacea canaliculata) chitosan and starch from Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) of

different percent composition of mass will undergo different tests to identify and verify

its mechanical properties. These includes the following tests:

Tensile Strength Test

The tensile strength could be done using any of the two methods:

Method 1

Three trials of hooking two spring balances, 1 inch away from the nonadjacent

edges of the sample bioplastic, will be performed. Each trial the tensile strength of the

sheet will be recorded using the table below. Same procedure will be done on each taken

samples. The tensile strength of the bioplastics will then be tabulated and compared to

each other.

Tensile Strength (Newton)

Bioplastic 1 Bioplastic 2 Bioplastic 3 Bioplastic 4 Bioplastic 5
Trial
(100-0) (25-75) (50-50) (75-25) (0-100)
1
2
3

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 Method 2

Tensile strength will be measured with Universal Testing Machine (UTM) with

the assistance of the Department of Science and Technology-Bicol (DOST-V). Tensile

strength will be calculated using the following:

Tensile Strength = Max Load × Gravity

Solvent Uptake Test

Samples of bioplastic will be cut to the size of 1.0 cm x 1.0 cm. The sheets that

have been cut will be weighed with an analytical balance sheet. Then, each will be put

into a separate 10 ml beaker filled with 5 ml solvent, to be sterilized in room temperature.

Every minute, the plastics will be taken, and the solvent on the bioplastic surface will be

wiped with a tissue which then will be weighed. The absorption capacity of the solvent

will be calculated using the following formula:

W −Wo
Solvent uptake = ×100 %
Wo

where: Wo= weight of dry sample while

W = weight of sample after immersion in the solvent

Biodegradation Test

The mass of each sample bioplastic will be taken and recorded. Then each will be

put in a separate hole seven inches below a plantation soil. After ten days it will be dug

out, and their mass will again be taken and recorded. The resulting change in mass will be

used to analyze its biodegradability.

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 Sample Original Mass (grams) Mass after the Test (grams)
Bioplastic 1 (100-0)
Bioplastic 2 (25-75)
Bioplastic 3 (50-50)
Bioplastic 4 (75-25)
Bioplastic 5 (0-100)

REFERENCES

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