Engineering Sciences

Forest and agricultural raw materials like leaves, leafy sheaths and Pseudo-stems were traditionally used for storing or serving foods. Physicochemical studies on wet/dry leaves of banana, beautia, bauhinia and arecanut sheath have revealed that their functional properties are better than those of paper. It was found possible to convert them into small package forms like cups and trays for substituting the modern paper and plastic materials. Market samples of dry leaves of banana and beautia showed initial microbial loads and it was found that by brief treatment of dry leaves of banana and beautia for a few minutes in hypo-chlorite solution, the microbial load could be reduced