Strength, Water Absorption, Thermal and Antimicrobial Properties of a Biopolymer Composite Wound Dressing

Conventional wound material allows bacterial invasions, trauma and discomfort associated with the changing of the dressing material, and the accumulation of body fluid for wounds with high exudate. However, there is a shift from conventional wound dressing materials to polymeric nanofibers due to their high surface area to volume ratio, high porosity, good pore size distribution, which allows for cell adhesion and proliferation. There is an urgent need to synthesis a biodegradable composite that is resistant to bacterial infection. In this study, an electrospun polylactide (PLA) composite suitable for wound dressing, with enhanced antimicrobial and mechanical properties, was produced. The neat PLA, PLA/CH (10 wt.%), PLA/CH (5 wt.%), PLA/CHS (10 wt.%), PLA/CHS (5 wt.%), PLA/CH (2.5 wt.%) /CHS (2.5 wt.%) and PLA/CH (5 wt.%)/CHS (5 wt.%), were electrospun using 0.14 g/ml solution. Results show that crystallinity (67.6%) of neat PLA declined by 3.8% on the addition of 2.5 wt.% chitin/chitosan with improved hydrophilicity of the composite. The tensile strength of neat PLA (0.3 MPa) increased (0.6 MPa) with 2.5 wt.% chitin/chitosan addition. The slight increase in the glass transition temperature from 75°C for neat PLA to 78°C of the composite fibre, showed improved ductility. The fibres showed little beads, hence suitable for wound dressing. The electrospun mats have good water absorption capacity and strong resistance against Staphylococcus aureus. Good performance was attained at 5 wt.% of chitin, chitosan and hybrid reinforcements. Therefore, a PLA/chitin/chitosan composite is recommended as a wound dressing material

Structural and Morphological Evaluations of Natural Hydroxyapatite from Calcined Animal Bones for Biomedical Applications

Several biomedical materials have been employed as drug delivery systems, but natural Hydroxyapatite (HAP) has been proven to be exceptionally better than other materials owing to its excellent bioactivity and biocompatibility properties. In this study, nat­ural HAP was obtained from bovine and caprine bones and comparatively analysed for biomedical applications. The bones were hydrothermally treated, calcined in the temperature range of 700–1100°C, held for 2 hours in an electric furnace to remove the organic contents; milled, sifted with 150 μm mesh sieve and then characterized. It was revealed by Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) that the bovine and caprine bone samples calcined at 1000°C had calcium/phosphorus ratio (Ca/P) of 1.66 closest to the standard of 1.67. The bovine HAP showed the best crystallinity (86.23%) at 1000°C while caprine HAP had its highest (87.25%) at 1100°C. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) results revealed that the calcination temperature must be greater than 700°C to isolate high quality HAP. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) showed that the samples calcined at 800°C had the largest average particle size (85.34 μm) while porosity increases with calcination temperature in both samples. The HAP obtained at a calcination temperature of 1000°C proved to have the best quality for biomedical applications