Date of Graduation
7-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Food Science (MS)
Degree Level
Graduate
Department
Food Science
Advisor/Mentor
Rahman, Mahfuzur
Committee Member
Kariyat, Rupesh
Second Committee Member
Ferreira, Sun
Keywords
rice bran, bioplastics, rice milling, cold plasma, food packaging, biomedical application
Abstract
Abstract Over the past few years, conventional plastic packaging materials have become increasingly concerned with their environmental impact. Therefore, the demand for bioplastics has been increasing significantly over the years. Rice milling, a process that modifies paddy rice into edible rice, generates by-products such as rice bran. Rice bran has cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and protein, which makes it a potential material for bioplastic fabrication. However, like most biodegradable films, rice bran films fall short when it comes to practical packaging applications. They often lack the strength, flexibility, moisture resistance, and barrier performance needed to compete with synthetic plastics. Most importantly, these films lack the ability to demonstrate biological properties (antioxidant and antimicrobial). Cold plasma technology has demonstrated significant potential in augmenting the antimicrobial properties of biopolymer matrix. It is a mixture of excited and fragmented gas molecules, ions, free electrons, and radicals. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen radicals generated by plasma in biological environments can control the growth of bacteria. The overall objective of this study is to modify rice bran and rice bran protein films using various cold plasma generation methods. The first objective of this work is to incorporate plasma-activated water into the film-forming solution to investigate how reactive species influence the structural and functional properties of the resulting films. A second objective is to apply plasma surface treatment with the aim of modifying biological properties by using reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. The anticipated outcomes of this research include (i) an understanding of rice bran’s potential in bioplastic fabrication and (ii) the establishment of a sustainable modification technique to induce antimicrobial properties in the bio-based materials.
Citation
SAFWA, S. (2026). Valorization of Rice Bran for Functional Film Fabrication using Cold Plasma for Food Packaging and Biomedical Applications. Graduate Theses and Dissertations Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/6379
