Acacia gum polysaccharide based hydrogel wound dressings: Synthesis, characterization, drug delivery and biomedical properties

Keeping in view the importance of polysaccharide gums for wound care, in the present article, an attempt has been made to explore antioxidant nature of gum acacia in designing hydrogel wound dressing to improve its wound healing potential. These polymers were prepared by using acacia gumpolyvinylpyrollidone/carbopol and were characterized by C-13 NMR, FTIR, SEM, AFM, cryo-SEM, XRD, TGA, DSC and elemental analysis techniques. Some important biomaterial properties of wound dressings such as wound fluid absorption, haemo-compatibility, bioactive assessment, gaseous/water/microbial permeability, mechanical properties, bio-adhesion, drug release, and histology of wound healing were also determined. Hydrogel wound dressings were found non-haemolytic, antioxidant and mucoadhesive in nature. Release of drug occurred through non-Fickian diffusion mechanism and release profile best fitted in Higuchi model. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.