Bionanocomposite Films from Camel Skin Gelatin Reinforced with Tannic Acid and Date Seed Nanocellulose

Gelatin films face limitations in strength and water stability, making bionanocomposites an effective strategy to enhance their functional properties for food packaging applications. This study explores the effects of environmentally-friendly-extracted date seed nanocellulose (DSNC; 4–8%) and tannic acid (TA; 1–5%) as bio-based multifunctional components on structural, thermal, antioxidant, and barrier properties of bionanocomposite camel skin gelatin (CSG) films. A comparison was drawn with films fabricated using porcine and bovine gelatin sources. The overall functionality of the bionanocomposite films and crystallinity of the developed films were assessed through fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The results suggest that TA induced crosslinking and DSNC facilitated hydrogen bonding, improved the mechanical, antioxidant, barrier and thermal properties of the developed films. In particular, composite CSG films having 5% TA and 8% DSNC exhibited 12.2% lower water solubility, 36.4% lower transparency, significantly higher DPPH radical scavenging (4.77 mmol TEAC/mL) and FRAP (7.20 mmol TEAC/mL) activities, 117.3% higher tensile strength (17.55 MPa), 73.6% lower elongation at break, and 57.7% lower water vapor transmission rate in comparison to control, respectively. The composite films containing 5% TA and 8% DSNC were observed to degrade up to 95% in four weeks under controlled conditions. The results from DSC further highlighted the improved thermal stability of composite films. Overall, the incorporation of TA and DSNC in camel skin derived gelatin films presents an effective approach to valorize byproducts coming from camel slaughter and date processing industries for producing sustainable, multifunctional materials for food packaging applications.