Study of the effect of adding latex from plants of the
Brazilian Cerrado in the properties of pectin films
T. B. R. Araújo, J. Dantas, A. M. F. Lima and M. F. Lima
Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Campus Universitário do Araguaia,MT, Brazil
The effect of adding latex extracted from plants of the Brazilian Cerrado in pectin films was
evaluated. The first results based on the FT-IR analysis of the pure sample of latex have
indicated the degree of evolution of the Brazilian Cerrado species on the basis of the
significant difference (mainly quantitative) between the obtained spectra (Figure 1).
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1. FT-IR spectra of three different samples of latex. (a) Brosimum gaudichaudii Trec;
(b) Hancornia speciosa; and (c) Sapium glandulatu.
From such samples, different compositions of latex-pectin films were prepared and compared
to the control biopolymer (pure pectin).
The preliminary results indicate that the singular nature of each sample of latex has conferred
different thermal properties for each tested doped material.
The conclusions until here pointed to the direction of that the degree of evolution of the plants
of the Brazilian Cerrado[1], has created a still unexplored branch of potentialities in
biomaterial science in Brazil.
Palavras chave: Latex, Brazilian Cerrado, biopolymers.
Work supported by CNPq, FAPEMAT and CAPES.
We thanks to the Laboratório de Materiais Poliméricos-UFMG and POLIMAT-UFSC for the
support.
[1] R. C. Mendonça; J. M. Felfili; B. M. T. Walter; M. C. Silva Júnior; A. V. Rezende; T. S.
Filgueiras, P. E. Nogueira, 1998. Flora vascular do cerrado. Pp. 287- 556. In: M.S.&
S.P. Almeida (Eds.) Cerrado: ambiente e flora. Embrapa-CPAC. Planaltina, DF.
[email protected]
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