Tacca Leontopetaloides Starch: New Sources Starch for Biodegradable Plastic

Thermoplastic starch (TPS) based plastic is a promising material for solving various environmental issues. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the potential of Tacca leontopetaloides starch plasticized using glycerol and crude palm oil (CPO) as an aid in plastic development. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) analysis of CPO-TPS shows the samples have a lower limit since the bends undergo less disruption after degradability test was performed. The functional group of glycerol TPS was 100% disrupted after degradation test where no peaks observed by FTIR. The thermal decomposition of TPSs analyzed by using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) showed Glycerol TPS gave similar thermal stability behavior as conventional TPS. However, glycerol TPS has faster degradation rate since the samples started to degrade at low temperature 70 °C compared with conventional bio-plastic at 110 °C. This finding shows the benefit of a new renewable source of starch as a bio-plastic. This is fiscible since starch is not a staple food for Malaysia population.