Amorphophallus Paeonifolius

June 16 - Father's Day Sunday. The Titan, Metis, is gaining in height rapidly. Maybe this one will surpass 2010's height!!?? It measures 64 inches this morning but it is hard to measure properly now without another set of eyes to verify. We will get an accurate measure on Monday morning. The projection is still around June 20th....give or take. This is now day 34 since first sight of the emerging shoot. (The tall plant next to it on the left is an unfurling leaf of Amorphophallus paeonifolius, also donated by Werner Steigler). We are running out of bench space where these Amorphophallus' really do well!

amorphophallus paeonifolius

Bio-plastics are biodegradable materials that can be obtained from renewable sources such as corn starch, straw, vegetable fats and oils, wood chips, recycled food waste, sawdust, etc. They can be used as an alternative to the commercial plastics in the market which contaminates our environment. Nowadays bio-plastics are worldwide popular due to their concern towards the environment, limited fossil fuel resources, and climatic change. The purpose of this study is to assess the properties of the starch-based bio-plastics prepared from Amorphophallus paeonifolius and Manihot esculenta using glycerol and agar-agar as the plasticizers. The synthesized bio-plastic was characterized with the help of UV-Visible spectrophotometer, FT-IR spectroscopy, and SEM Analysis. Finally, it is concluded that the bioplastic based on Manihot esculenta and Amorphophallus paeonifolius could be established as a favorable ecological alternative to be used as a developed medical material and the bio-plastic can also be used in packaging, cosmetics, food additives and clothing due to its good properties of resistance and favorable biodegradation. 041b061a72