FABRICATION OF ESSENTIAL OILS LOADED ELECTROSPUN NANOFIBERS FOR BIOMEDICAL USAGE

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance emerged as one of the foremost challenge to human health and global economy. Scarcity in newly developed therapeutic agents is making the life of clinicians cumbersome. Biofilm, a three-dimensional structure of sessile cells enclosed within a self-produced extracellular polymeric matrix that sequester antibiotics is one of the prime virulence trait of both bacteria and fungi that make them multifold resistant to the antibiotics. Tremendous rise in acute mucocutaneous to life threatening fungal infections is becoming a major concerns for national governments and international organizations. Among the fungal pathogens Candida albicans (C. albicans) and Candida glabrata (C. glabrata) are most common species that cause superficial to blood stream infections in immunocompromised patients. Poor performance of antifungals such as azoles, polyenes and echinocandins and toxicological issues due to their long-term use should be addressed immediately before the situation become pandemic. In this regard, essential oils and their active constituents could be utilized to manage fungal biofilms owing to their excellent therapeutic efficacy and biocompatibility. However, volatile, hydrophobic, poor physiological stability, photo degradation and oxidation susceptible properties of essential oils hinder their biopharmaceutical applications. This hurdle can be addressed by encapsulating essential oils in the nanomaterials. Therefore, in this study we have encapsulated cinnamaldehyde (CA), eucalyptol (EPTL) and p-cymene (p-cym) active components of essential oils in gellan (GA)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) electrospun nanofibers. Electrospun nanofibers possess high surface area, homogeneous and interconnected porous structure, and enhanced fibrous network enable higher drug loading, swelling property and enhanced encapsulation efficiency, which govern the efficacy a drug delivery system. Both GA and PVA were extensively used in various pharmaceutical and food products.