Characterisation of an edible chitosan film incorporating tea seed oil/montmorillonite and antifungal activity against Botrytis cinerea

Summary Chitosan films enhanced with tea seed oil (TO) and montmorillonite were solution cast and the influence of montmorillonite additives on the physicochemical and antifungal properties was evaluated. The addition of TO and montmorillonite significantly increased both the pH and viscosity of the coating solutions. SEM and AFM showed montmorillonite addition increased membrane structure homogeneity. In addition, chitosan films incorporating montmorillonite exhibited significantly improved tensile strength, at 43.87% in chitosan with montmorillonite and 44.23% in chitosan with montmorillonite and TO. Antifungal activity of the chitosan coating increased sharply when TO was added, inhibiting spore germination and germ tube length by 65.05% and 51.95% respectively. The decay inhibition rates for strawberries treated with chitosan and TO, or chitosan, TO and montmorillonite were also high at 32.77% and 28.79% respectively. This demonstrates that chitosan‐based TO/montmorillonite films are potential materials for packaging fruits or vegetables, to eventually replace synthetic polymers.