NANO EMPOWERED HERBAL BANDAGE AGAINST CHRONIC AND COMPLICATED WOUNDS

Abstract

Wound treatment and care are difficult to handle, especially in patients with chronic wounds like Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU) and burn injuries. To combat against these critical problems, an urgent measure would be the need of the moment. In the current project, we have designed an antimicrobial loaded PHA based nanofiber to develop a nanofiber-based herbal bandage. PHA was extracted from a novel bacteria. The extracted polymer was characterized using XRD, TGA, and FTIR and confirmed it to be Polyhydroxbutyrate (PHB). PHB/PCL nanofiber was fabricated using the electrospinning process. The fabricated nanofiber was further optimized in different ratios and characterized using FESEM to analyze the surface morphology of the nanofibers. PHB/PCL nanofibers were tested for their efficiency as a drug delivering agent. To understand that an in vitro drug release of the fabricated nanofibers was performed using standard antibiotics Ampicillin and Ofloxacin. The release study for PHB/PCL/AMP lasted for 4h, and PHB/PCL/OFL lasted for 48h. The drug release study of PHB/PCL/OFL shows controlled release up to 48h, whereas PHB/PCL/AMP shows burst release due to its hydrophilic nature. Both the nanofibers inhibited bacterial growth of wild-type E. coli strain. For the herbal based nanofiber, Plant extracts from Panchavalkal were tested for their antibacterial susceptibility. But, Panchavalkal showed no or negligible inhibition. Naturally extracted, drug incorporated PHB/PCL nanofibers can be used efficiently for sustainable and controlled drug release to heal chronic wounds.