Design of Curcumin-Loaded Electrospun Polyhydroxybutyrate Mat as a Wound Healing Material

Nanotechnology and tissue engineering have accelerated wound healing. Polyhydroxyalkanoates, with suitable physical, biological and mechanical properties, can be considered as a good candidate in tissue repair and regeneration. In this study, nanofibrous mats of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) containing curcumin as a wound healing agent, were designed by electrospinning method. The samples were evaluated by microscopic and mechanical analyses, cell assays and microbial tests. The results of microscopic images showed that the diameter of fibers increased with the increase in the curcumin concentration. The elongation and elasticity modulus of nanofibers increased and decreased respectively, with the increase in the amount of curcumin. Drug release study indicated that increasing the curcumin concentration into nanofibers accelerated rate of drug release. Cytotoxicity results of nanofibrous samples with lower curcumin showed better biocompatibility. The strongest antibacterial activity was shown by the sample with 3% curcumin. In addition, Curcumin-loaded nanofibrous PHB can be potential candidates for wound healing

Computational modeling of drug separation from aqueous solutions using octanol organic solution in membranes

Continuous membrane separation of pharmaceuticals from an aqueous feed was studied theoretically by development of high-performance mechanistic model. The model was developed based on mass and momentum transfer to predict separation and removal of ibuprofen (IP) and its metabolite compound, i.e. 4-isobutylacetophenone (4-IBAP) from aqueous solution. The modeling study was carried out for a membrane contactor considering mass transport of solute from feed to organic solvent (octanol solution). The solute experiences different mass transfer resistances during the removal in membrane system which were all taken into account in the modeling. The model’s equations were solved using computational fluid dynamic technique, and the simulations were carried out to understand the effect of process parameters, flow pattern, and membrane properties on the removal of both solutes. The simulation results indicated that IP and 4-IBAP can be effectively removed from aqueous feed by adjusting the process parameters and flow pattern. More removal was obtained when the feed flows in the shell side of membrane system due to improving mass transfer. Also, feed flow rate was indicated to be the most affecting process parameter, and the highest solute removal was obtained at the lowest feed flow rate

Molecular separation of ibuprofen and 4-isobutylacetophenone using octanol organic solution by porous polymeric membranes

Molecular separation of pharmaceutical contaminants from water has been recently of great interest to alleviate their detrimental impacts on environment and human well-being. As the novelty, this investigation aims to develop a mechanistic modeling approach and consequently its related CFD-based simulations to evaluate the molecular separation efficiency of ibuprofen (IP) and its metabolite 4-isobutylacetophenone (4-IBAP) from water inside a porous membrane contactor (PMC). For this purpose, octanol has been applied as an organic phase to extract IP and 4-IBAP from the aqueous solution due to high solubility of solutes in octanol. Finite element (FE) technique is used as a promising tool to simultaneously solve continuity and Navier-Stokes equations and their associated boundary conditions in tube, shell and porous membrane compartments of the PMC. The results demonstrated that the application of PMC and liquid-liquid extraction process can be significantly effective due to separating 51 and 54% of inlet IP and 4-IBAP molecules from aqueous solution, respectively. Moreover, the impact of various operational / functional parameters such as packing density, the number of fibrous membrane, the module length, the membrane porosity / tortuosity, and ultimately the aqueous solution flow rate on the molecular separation efficiency of IP and 4-IBAP is studied in more detail