Abstract Capsicum spp. pepper has great economic and social importance in agribusiness worldwide, mainly associated with its high performance in cookery as a spice. This study aimed at determining the chemical profile of the ethanolic extract from Capsicum chinense Jacq. (EECC) ripe fruits by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and at evaluating its antioxidant activity by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP. Besides, biodegradable films were prepared by incorporating EECC into arrowroot biofilms. LC-MS identified 10 phenolic compounds, a fact that corroborates its high concentration of total phenolic compounds, i. e., 277.62 ± 12.06 mg gallic acid/100g crude extract. High antioxidant activity of EECC was expressed as IC50 values for reagents DPPH (IC50 = 18.04 µg/mL), ABTS (IC50 = 25.33 µg/mL) and FRAP (IC50 = 128.58 µg/mL). Biodegradable films incorporating different doses of EECC (250-1000 µL) were obtained by a casting technique. The higher the EECC concentration, the higher their thickness, color, variable moisture content and the lower their solubility. This study proposes a new use to the plant extract from C. chinense, a natural product that may be applied to the development of biofilms to coat food and retard its deterioration. In addition, antioxidant activity of this type of pepper is also shown.

Starch is a promising source of biopolymers and the incorporation of essential oils (EOs) into it can improve some biological properties of films. This study aimed at developing and characterizing barrier, biodegradability and optical properties of biopolymeric films made from arrowroot starch and at incorporating EOs from Piper aduncum leaves and inflorescences in order to analyze their antifungal activity against Rhizopus microsporus and Colletotrichum gloeosporioides. The casting method was used for developing arrowroot starch films and incorporating EOs into them. Resulting films exhibited satisfactory barrier properties, low water vapor permeability (WVP), transparency and good barrier property against UV-vis light, besides being 100% biodegradable. In addition, films enriched with EOs at 0.75% and 1.0% revealed promising antifungal activity. Results showed, for the first time, that arrowroot starch enriched with EOs from P. aduncum can potentially be used as an active film due to its excellent physicochemical properties and antimicrobial activity.