05 m, and crosshead speed of 10 mm/min (1.67 × 10−4 m/s). Five replicates were used for each treatment. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were carried out for all responses, in order to verify which of them were significantly

affected by CW type and/or concentration. Depending on the results for each response, appropriate difference tests were applied to study differences among CW concentrations (Tukey tests) and/or CW types (Dunnett tests). The plain AAP film presented the following properties: tensile strength, 3.16 MPa; elongation at break, 28.26%; Young’s modulus, 15.35 MPa; water vapor permeability, 3.19 × 10−13 kg m Pa−1 s−1 m−2. The strength and modulus of the films were

higher when compared to those observed Saracatinib order for mango (Azeredo et al., 2009) but lower than those reported for peach (McHugh & Olsen, 2004), alginate-apple (Rojas-Graü et al., 2007) and mango (Sothornvit & Rodsamran, 2008) fruit puree films. The water vapor permeability of the AAP film was lower than those reported for other fruit-based films in all above-mentioned studies, which apparently suggests a better moisture barrier of the film in the present study selleck kinase inhibitor when compared to those, although the test was conducted under different conditions – for example, an air-circulating system was not included as in the previous studies. Then, some caution is needed when comparing the present results with those mentioned in the beginning of this paragraph, since the lack of air circulation may retard moisture transfer, thus possibly leading to an underestimation

of the WVP. The dimensions and aspect ratios of the CW incorporated to the nanocomposite films are presented in Table 1. The CW from coconut fibers had lower diameter and higher lengths when compared to those obtained from cotton fibers, and their resulting aspect ratio was about four times higher. The tensile properties and WVP were not significantly affected by CW type or CW type × concentration interaction (Table 2). So, the effects of CW from coconut husk fiber (submitted to one- or multi-stage bleaching) on tensile properties and water vapor permeability of the films were similar to those of CW from Epothilone B (EPO906, Patupilone) cotton fiber. The films with cotton CW had probably a better filler-matrix compatibility, because of the absence of lignin in the cotton fiber wall (Kim & Triplett, 2001). Although lignin has been reported to improve matrix-fillers adhesion and mechanical properties of hydrophobic matrices such as rubber (Alexy et al., 2008) and poly(lactic acid) (Graupner, 2008), this seems not to be true for hydrophilic matrices such as alginate-acerola puree, because of the relatively high hydrophobicity of lignin. In fact, Baumberger et al. (1998) reported incompatibility between lignin and a starch matrix.