Development of Hydrophobic Oil-Resistant Paper Using Latex of Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. and Preliminary Phytochemical, Antioxidant and Antibacterial Studies of its Seeds and Leaves

The present study was aimed to develop hydrophobic and oil-resistant paper using Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. latex and to analyse its antioxidant properties, nutritional value, functional groups in seeds and phytochemicals, and antibacterial activity of seeds and leaves. The DPPH assay method (antioxidant activity), FTIR analysis (identification of functional groups) and the disc diffusion method (antibacterial activity) were used. The chloroform is the better solvent for latex extraction than hexane, with hydrophobicity of 50 min and an oil resistance of 1.5 h. Hexane extract had a hydrophobicity of 25 min and an oil resistance of 1 h. The proximate analysis of seeds revealed the presence of carbohydrates as major constituent (69.59%), followed by protein (10.77%), moisture (11.31%), ash (6.08%), and fat (2.25%). The methanol extracts of seeds and leaves contained secondary metabolites like tannins, saponins (in seeds), flavonoids and phenols (in leaves). Chloroform extracts of A. heterophyllus seeds showed 8.2 mm zone of inhibition against Staphylococcus aureus (MTCC 96) and 8.8 mm against Escherichia coli (MTCC 443), while leaves did not show any significant inhibition. The study emphasizes the usage of A. heterophyllus to develop various eco-friendly products and to exploit the nutritional and mineral contents and the antioxidant and antibacterial properties.