Smart karaya-locust bean gum hydrogel particles for the treatment of hypertension: Optimization by factorial design and pre-clinical evaluation

Development of pH-Sensitive hydrogel for advanced wound Healing: Graft copolymerization of locust bean gum with acrylamide and acrylic acid

Wounds pose a formidable challenge in healthcare, necessitating the exploration of innovative tissue-healing solutions. Traditional wound dressings exhibit drawbacks, causing tissue damage and impeding natural healing. Using a Microwave (MW)-)-assisted technique, we envisaged a novel hydrogel (Hg) scaffold to address these challenges. This hydrogel scaffold was created by synthesizing a pH-responsive crosslinked material, specifically locust bean gum-grafted-poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) [LBG-g-poly(AAm-co-AAc)], to enable sustained release of c-phycocyanin (C-Pc). Synthesized LBG-g-poly(AAm-co-AAc) was fine-tuned by adjusting various synthetic parameters, including the concentration of monomers, duration of reaction, and MW irradiation intensity, to maximize the yield of crosslinked LBG grafted product and enhance encapsulation efficiency of C-Pc. Following its synthesis, LBG-g-poly(AAm-co-AAc) was thoroughly characterized using advanced techniques, like XRD, TGA, FTIR, NMR, and SEM, to analyze its structural and chemical properties. Moreover, the study examined the in-vitro C-Pc release profile from LBG-g-poly(AAm-co-AAc) based hydrogel (HgCPcLBG). Findings revealed that the maximum release of C-Pc (64.12 ± 2.69 %) was achieved at pH 7.4 over 48 h. Additionally, HgCPcLBG exhibited enhanced antioxidant performance and compatibility with blood. In vivo studies confirmed accelerated wound closure, and ELISA findings revealed reduced inflammatory markers (IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α) within treated skin tissue, suggesting a positive impact on injury repair. A low-cost and eco-friendly approach for creating LBG-g-poly(AAm-co-AAc) and HgCPcLBG has been developed. This method achieved sustained release of C-Pc, which could be a significant step forward in wound care technology.

Synthesis and bio-medical applications of multifunctional phosphorester cyclic amide anchored sterculia network

The main focus of the present research is to design network hydrogels derived from natural polymers to promote a sustainable future. Multifunctional hydrogels were prepared by combining sterculia gum (SG), phosphorester -cyclic amide polymers for bio-medical applications including drug delivery (DD). The antibiotic drug ceftriaxone was incorporated into hydrogels to enhance wound healing potential. The surface morphology of copolymers was investigated by using FESEM and AFM techniques. FTIR and 13C NMR spectroscopic techniques provided insight into the formation of network structures. In FTIR analysis, distinctive bands were identified: at 1649 cm-1 attributed to CO stretching of the cyclic amide of PVP, at 1147 cm-1 and 974 cm-1 representing PO stretching and P-O-C of poly(BMEP), respectively. In the 13C NMR spectrum, a prominent peak at 63.272 ppm revealed the presence of (O-CH2) linkage of poly(BMEP). XRD demonstrated amorphous characteristics of hydrogels. The interactions of copolymer with blood, bio-membrane and encapsulated drug illustrated their biocompatibility, bio-adhesion and controlled DD properties. The dressings expressed a hemolytic index value of 2.58 ± 0.03 %. The hydrogels exhibited mucoadhesive character, revealed from the adhesion force of 50.0 ± 5 mN needed to separate polymer dressing from the mucosa. Dressings exhibited antioxidant properties and displayed 33.73 ± 0.3 % radical scavenging in the DPPH assay. Protein adsorption test of copolymer illustrated 9.48 ± 0.970 % of albumin adsorption. The tensile strength of the dressing was found 0.54 ± 0.03 N mm-2 while the burst strength 9.92 ± 0.27 N was observed. The sustained release of the drug was provided by supra-molecular interactions. Drug release followed a non-Fickian diffusion mechanism and the release profile was best described by the Higuchi kinetic model. Additionally, hydrogel dressings revealed permeability to H2O vapors and O2 and antimicrobial activity. These findings suggest the suitability of sterculia gum-based hydrogels for DD uses.

Fabrication and characterization of Karaya gum-based films reinforced with bacterial nanocellulose stabilized valerian root extract Pickering emulsion for lamb meat preservation

A novel biodegradable film was fabricated by incorporating bacterial nanocellulose stabilized valerian root extract (VRE) Pickering emulsion into karaya gum with better antioxidant and antibacterial properties for lamb meat preservation. The valerian root extract Pickering emulsion (VPE) exhibited 98 ± 1.84 % encapsulating efficiency and excellent physical stability with an average particle size of 274.6 nm. The incorporation of VPE-5 into the film matrix increased its elongation at break (EAB), and improved water resistance and barrier properties against oxygen, water vapor, and UV light. Moreover, the antioxidant and anti-bacterial properties against S.aerous and E. coli were also improved based on VPE-5 concentration. The SEM images showed a uniform distribution of VPE-5 while FTIR and XRD revealed its compatibility with karaya gum, which improved its thermal stability. The active films showed a significant preservative effect by reducing the pH, total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and total viable count (TVC) value of lamb meat and maintained its texture and color during the storage period of 9 days at 4 °C. These results demonstrated the inclusion of VPE-5 into Karaya gum was a promising technique and offers a great potential application as a bioactive material in food packaging.

State-of-the-art progress on locust bean gum polysaccharide for sustainable food packaging and drug delivery applications: A review with prospectives

Locust bean gum (LBG), a polysaccharide-based natural polymer, is being widely researched as an appropriate additive for various products, including food, gluten-free formulations, medicines, paper, textiles, oil well drilling, cosmetics, and medical uses. Drug delivery vehicles, packaging, batteries, and catalytic supports are all popular applications for biopolymer-based materials. This review discusses sustainable food packaging and drug delivery applications for LBG. Given the benefits of LBG polysaccharide as a source of dietary fiber, it is also being investigated as a potential treatment for many health disorders, including colorectal cancer, diabetes, and gastrointestinal difficulties. The flexibility of LBG polysaccharide allows it to form hydrogen bonds with water molecules, a crucial characteristic of biomaterials, and the film-forming properties of LBG are critical for food packaging applications. The extraction process of LBG plays an important role in properties such as viscosity and gel-forming properties. Moreover, there are multiple factors such as temperature, pressure, pH, etc. The LBG-based functional composite film is effective in improving the shelf life as well as monitoring the freshness of fruits, meat and other processed food. The LBG-based hydrogel is excellent carrier of drugs and can be used for slow and sustainable release of active components present in drugs. Thus, the primary goal of this review was to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the literature with a focus on the composition, properties, processing, food packaging, and medicine delivery applications of LBG polysaccharides. Thus, we investigated the chemical composition, extraction, and characteristics of LBG polysaccharides that underlie their applications in the food packaging and medicine delivery fields.

Gums as Macromolecular Crowding Agents in Human Skin Fibroblast Cultures

Even though tissue-engineered medicines are under intense academic, clinical, and commercial investigation, only a handful of products have been commercialised, primarily due to the costs associated with their prolonged manufacturing. While macromolecular crowding has been shown to enhance and accelerate extracellular matrix deposition in eukaryotic cell culture, possibly offering a solution in this procrastinating tissue-engineered medicine development, there is still no widely accepted macromolecular crowding agent. With these in mind, we herein assessed the potential of gum Arabic, gum gellan, gum karaya, and gum xanthan as macromolecular crowding agents in WS1 skin fibroblast cultures (no macromolecular crowding and carrageenan were used as a control). Dynamic light scattering analysis revealed that all macromolecules had negative charge and were polydispersed. None of the macromolecules affected basic cellular function. At day 7 (the longest time point assessed), gel electrophoresis analysis revealed that all macromolecules significantly increased collagen type I deposition in comparison to the non-macromolecular crowding group. Also at day 7, immunofluorescence analysis revealed that carrageenan; the 50 µg/mL, 75 µg/mL, and 100 µg/mL gum gellan; and the 500 µg/mL and 1000 µg/mL gum xanthan significantly increased both collagen type I and collagen type III deposition and only carrageenan significantly increased collagen type V deposition, all in comparison to the non-macromolecular crowding group at the respective time point. This preliminary study demonstrates the potential of gums as macromolecular crowding agents, but more detailed biological studies are needed to fully exploit their potential in the development of tissue-engineered medicines.

Natural Gums in Drug-Loaded Micro- and Nanogels

Gums are polysaccharide compounds obtained from natural sources, such as plants, algae and bacteria. Because of their excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability, as well as their ability to swell and their sensitivity to degradation by the colon microbiome, they are regarded as interesting potential drug carriers. In order to obtain properties differing from the original compounds, blends with other polymers and chemical modifications are usually applied. Gums and gum-derived compounds can be applied in the form of macroscopic hydrogels or can be formulated into particulate systems that can deliver the drugs via different administration routes. In this review, we present and summarize the most recent studies regarding micro- and nanoparticles obtained with the use of gums extensively investigated in pharmaceutical technology, their derivatives and blends with other polymers. This review focuses on the most important aspects of micro- and nanoparticulate systems formulation and their application as drug carriers, as well as the challenges related to these formulations.

Recent advances of Sterculia gums uses in drug delivery systems

Trees of the genus Sterculia produce polysaccharide-rich exudates, such as karaya gum (Sterculia urens), chicha gum (Sterculia striata), and Sterculia foetida gum. These anionic biomaterials are biodegradable, with high viscosity, low toxicity, and gelling properties in aqueous media. According to these properties, they show promising applications as a polymer matrix for use in drug delivery systems. For this application, both the chemically modified and the unmodified polysaccharide are used. This review focuses on analyzing the state of the art of recent studies on the use of Sterculia gums in a variety of pharmaceutical forms, such as tablets, hydrogels, micro/nanoparticles, and mucoadhesive films. Sterculia gums-based delivery systems have potential to be explored for new drug delivery systems.

Effect of Locust Bean Gum-Sodium Alginate Coatings Combined with High CO2 Modified Atmosphere Packaging on the Quality of Turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) during Refrigerated Storage

This research was conducted to investigate the effect of active coatings composed of locust bean gum (LBG) and sodium alginate (SA) containing daphnetin emulsions (DEs) combined with modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) on the microbiological and physicochemical properties of turbot during 4 °C refrigerated storage for 32 days. The results revealed that LBG-SA-DE coatings together with high CO₂ MAP (60% CO₂/35% N₂/5% O₂) maintained the total viable count (TVC) of H₂S-producing bacteria in 4–6 lg CFU/g, which is lower than the limit (7 lg CFU/g). In addition, LBG-SA-DE coatings together with high CO₂ MAP (60% CO₂/35% N2/5% O₂) inhibited the production of odor compounds, including thiobarbituric acid (TBA), trimethylamine-nitrogen (TMA-N), K value, and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N). The low-field NMR analysis (LF-NMR) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) indicated that LBG-SA-DE coatings together with high CO₂ MAP (60% CO₂/35% N₂/5% O₂) treatments could delay the release of water located in muscle fiber macromolecules or convert it into free water based on muscle fiber destruction, thus maintaining the water content and migration. The results of the sensory evaluation showed that turbot treated with LBG-SA-DE coatings together with MAP could maintain its freshness during refrigerated storage.

A facile synthesis of graphene oxide/locust bean gum hybrid aerogel for water purification

Graphene oxide/locust bean gum (GO/LBG) aerogels, synthesized in an ice crystal template without using any chemical modifiers, were used for the treatment of water pollution. Various characterization results showed that GO/LBG aerogel exhibited a network-like three-dimensional (3D) structure with large specific surface area. The adsorption data revealed that GO/LBG aerogels with GO/LBG mass ratio of 1:4 (GO/LBG-1 aerogels) exhibited more prominent adsorption properties for Rhodamine-B (RhB, 514.5 mgg^-1) than Indigo Carmine (IC, 134.6 mgg^-1). Simultaneously, GO/LBG-1 aerogels could selectively remove RhB from a binary mixed solution of RhB-IC dyes. Furthermore, GO/LBG-1 aerogels also displayed excellent reusability and could still reach 92.4 % after ten cycles. Based on the above results, GO/LBG-1 aerogel could be considered as an ideal adsorbent with potential application value for removing water-soluble RhB from wastewater.

Recent advances in the structure, synthesis, and applications of natural polymeric hydrogels

Hydrogels, polymeric network materials, are capable of swelling and holding the bulk of water in their three-dimensional structures upon swelling. In recent years, hydrogels have witnessed increased attention in food and biomedical applications. In this paper, the available literature related to the design concepts, types, functionalities, and applications of hydrogels with special emphasis on food applications was reviewed. Hydrogels from natural polymers are preferred over synthetic hydrogels. They are predominantly used in diverse food applications for example in encapsulation, drug delivery, packaging, and more recently for the fabrication of structured foods. Natural polymeric hydrogels offer immense benefits due to their extraordinary biocompatible nature. Hydrogels based on natural/edible polymers, for example, those from polysaccharides and proteins, can serve as prospective alternatives to synthetic polymer-based hydrogels. The utilization of hydrogels has so far been limited, despite their prospects to address various issues in the food industries. More research is needed to develop biomimetic hydrogels, which can imitate the biological characteristics in addition to the physicochemical properties of natural materials for different food applications.

Modulation of Drug Release from Natural Polymer Matrices by Response Surface Methodology: in vitro and in vivo Evaluation

Purpose

The present work aimed at challenging the efficacy of natural gums, karaya and locust bean gum, as matrix-forming polymers for the formulation of sustained-release tablets of diltiazem, a model drug.

Methods

Central design composite was adopted for the formulation and optimization of tablet formulations. The two gums have been selected as independent variables. The dependent factors chosen were the amount of drug released in 1st hour (Y1), amount of drug released after 12 h (Y2), diffusion exponent (Y3), and time for half of the total drug released (T_50%) (Y4). Wet granulation approach was used for the formulation of tablets. FT-IR, DSC, in vitro dissolution, swelling-erosion investigations, SEM, and stability studies were carried out.

Results and Discussion

It was evident that the release pattern from the prepared formulations was significantly influenced by the quantity of gum(s) in the tablet. FT-IR and DSC results confirm drug-polymer compatibility. Polynomial equations were used for the prediction of quantitative impact of independent factors at different levels on response variables. After ANOVA analysis, the significant factors were considered for constrained optimization to get the optimized formula. The optimized formula generated by the response surface methodology was evaluated both for in vitro and in vivo properties. The optimized formula and a sustained-release marketed product were subjected to in vivo studies in rabbits and the results of the t-test demonstrated insignificant variation in pharmacokinetic parameters among the two formulations, confirming that the prepared tablet showed sustained-release profile.

Conclusion

The results indicated that karaya and locust bean gum can be effectively used to formulate sustained-release tablets.

A novel green approach based on ZnO nanoparticles and polysaccharides for photocatalytic performance

Novel green photocatalysts based on ZnO in the presence of arabic gum (AGZ) or karaya gum (KGZ) were synthesized by a sol-gel method for photocatalytic performance. The materials were characterized by XRD, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, nitrogen adsorption/desorption, and PL and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. Photocatalytic test was performed using methylene blue (MB) dye as the target pollutant under visible light. The reuse of photocatalysts and Artemia saline bioassays were investigated. The ZnO nanoparticles showed a hexagonal structure and the values of the band gaps were 2.95 (AGZ) and 2.98 eV (KGZ). The PL results demonstrated emission bands at 440, 473 or 478 and 549 nm. The textural properties indicated the presence of typically mesoporous materials. The MB discoloration efficiency was 81.5% and 91.0% for AGZ and KGZ, respectively. The photocatalytic activity of AGZ and KGZ was maintained after the third run. The ˙OH radicals are the main species involved in the MB discoloration. The MB discoloration from the photocatalysts showed no toxicity; therefore, they are considered to be promising materials for the degradation of the dye in the photocatalytic process.

Eco-friendly synthesis and photocatalytic application of flowers-like ZnO structures using Arabic and Karaya Gums

Flowers-like ZnO structures were synthesized using Arabic Gum (AGZnO) or Karaya Gum (KGZnO). The AGZnO and KGZnO were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, Fourier Transformed Infrared, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Photoluminescence, nitrogen adsorption/desorption and diffuse reflectance techniques. The materials were tested in the discoloration of Methylene Blue (MB) dye under visible light and scavenger studies were also performed. The toxicity of the MB irradiated was investigated in bioassays with Artemia salina. The structural characterization demonstrated the formation of hexagonal ZnO. All samples presented flower-like morphology with presence of mesopores identified by BET method. The optical properties indicated band gap of 2.99 (AGZnO) and 2.76 eV (KGZnO), and emission in violet, blue and green emissions also were observed. The KGZnO demonstrated better photocatalytic performance than the AGZnO, and scavenger studies indicated that OH radicals are the main species involved in the degradation of the pollutant model. The photodiscoloration of MB solution did not demonstrate toxicity. Therefore, KGZnO is a promising material for photocatalysis application.

Preparation and properties of a highly elastic galactomannan- poly(acrylamide- N, N-bis (acryloyl) cysteamine) hydrogel with reductive stimuli-responsive degradable properties

An oxidation-reduction responsive degradable highly elastic galactomannan hydrogel was synthesized from galactomannan (GA), N,N-bis (acryloyl) cysteamine (BAC) and acrylamide by grafting polymerization in aqueous solution. The microstructure, degradability and mechanical properties of the hydrogels were emphatically investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), ultraviolet spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mechanical properties of hydrogels can be improved by adjusting the content of GA. Continuous cyclic compression tests showed that the hydrogel did not rupture under 60 %,70 %,80 % strain and quickly recovered to its original shape. The degradation rate and drug release rate of hydrogel can be adjusted by the concentration of the reductant and the reduction time. These hydrogels broaden the scope of application of GA and can be tuned with a broad range of mechanical, degradation and release properties and therefore hold potential applications in drug carriers, tissue engineering scaffolds, extracellular matrix and other fields.