Biopolymers From Crop Plants

Abstract Concerns on environmental problems caused by the use of non-degradable petro-chemical polymers has caused an increasing interest in degradable polymers especially biopolymers from crop plants. Biopolymers are gradually replacing petro-chemical polymers and play a bigger role in both fundamental research and application, this is confirmed by the number of papers and patents recently published linked to biopolymers. Biopolymers have been established as a promising class of materials to replace non-degradable polymers in view of their versatile properties, it is environmentally friendly, biodegradable and biocompatible, and it uses renewable plants resources. Also, it has some interesting properties such as non-toxicity, it is safe for oral consumption and has abundant availability etc. Biopolymer has been used in different fields such as packaging, medicine, cosmetics, biofuels, biomedics etc. This paper focuses on a basic understanding of the various types of biopolymers, their sources and classification. We present also, an overview of potential applications of biopolymers and their challenges.