PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE Packag. Technol. Sci. 2006; 19: 259–268 Published online 19 April 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/pts.729 Characterization of Antimicrobial Films Containing Basil Extracts By Panuwat Suppakul, 1 Joseph Miltz 2 * Kees Sonneveld 3 and Stephen W. Bigger 3 1 Department of Packaging Technology, Faculty of Agro-Industry, Kasetsart University, Bangkok,Thailand 2 Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering,Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel 3 Packaging and Polymer Research Unit, School of Molecular Sciences,Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia The properties of low-density polyethylene (LDPE)-based films containing either linalool or methylchavicol as antimicrobial (AM) additives were evaluated. Slight decreases in transparency, water vapour and oxygen transmission rates were found in the extruded films containing 0.34% w/w linalool or methylchavicol. The infrared (IR) spectra of the AM films were similar to that of additive-free LDPE film. However, carbonyl peaks could also be observed in the spectra of the AM films. There was no significant difference in the degree of crystallinity and the melting temperature range of the different films. Derivative thermogravimetry mass-loss curves showed that the thermal decomposition temperatures of the AM films were marginally lower than that of LDPE film. Electron micrographs indicated that AM LDPE-based films exhibited no evidence of changes in microstructure to suggest that linalool and methylchavicol were not evenly distributed in the film. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 6 September 2005; Revised 11 November 2005; Accepted 6 January 2006 KEY WORDS: antimicrobial packaging; characterization; basil; linalool; methylchavicol * Correspondence to: J. Miltz, Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel. E-mail: jmiltz@tx.technion.ac.il Contract/grant sponsor: Australian Agency for International Development Contract/grant sponsor: Fund for the Promotion of Research, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. INTRODUCTION The quality and safety of foods may deteriorate due to surface growth of spoilage or pathogenic microorganisms. Antimicrobial (AM) additives are often mixed directly into foods to control microbial growth and extend shelf-life. 1 However, direct addition of AM additives into foods has often been found to have limited benefits. 2 Also, incorporat- ing AM additives directly into the food involves relatively large quantities of the additive that, on the one hand, are not required for preservation (since microbial spoilage occurs primarily on the food surface) and, on the other hand, may impart an off-flavour. Antimicrobial packaging is an alter- native method to avoid the drawbacks involved in direct additive incorporation into the product with the aim of minimizing microbial load. Among other publications that appeared recently on this subject are those of Appendini and Hotchkiss 3 and Suppakul et al 4 . Examples of AM materials evaluated for food packaging applications include imazalil-impregnated low-density polyethylene (LDPE), 5 potassium sorbate incorporated in