Hibiscus mucilage for enhancing the flow in blood-stream-like microchannel system

Hibiscus schizopetalus boosts wound healing via restoring redox balance and hindering inflammatory responses in rats: Insights on metabolome profiling and molecular docking

Hibiscus species (Malvaceae) possess a plethora of appealing pharmacological activities with an extended history of customary use in diverse medical conditions. The present study aimed at comparing the metabolomic analyses of three Hibiscus species native to Egypt, namely H. tiliaceus, H. schizopetalus extract (HSE), and H. rosa-sinensis, alongside identifying a promising natural wound healing candidate. Chemical profiling of the leaf extracts was achieved via UPLC-ESI/MS/MS-guided analysis that resulted in the tentative identification of a total of 48 secondary metabolites pertaining to phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, fatty acids, and fatty amides. Remarkably, in vitro studies revealed that HSE exhibited the topmost wound healing activity. Subsequently, HSE was formulated into hydro- and nanogel (1% w/v) formulations for further assessing its efficacy in the wound excision model. HSE-nanogel demonstrated a significant in vivo wound contraction activity alongside improving histopathological abnormalities. Mechanistically, HSE-nanogel upregulated the wound antioxidant status through increasing the levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) and catalase activity. Moreover, HSE-nanogel suppressed the wound inflammatory responses by diminishing the expressions of NF-ĸB, TNF-α, and IL-6. Molecular docking studies were performed on HSE's major constituents using CDOCKER, which further supported the in vivo findings. Collectively, HSE nanogel exhibits notable aptitude as a wound-healing agent, warranting further clinical appraisal.

Synthesis and characterization of basil seed mucilage coated Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles as a drug carrier for the controlled delivery of cephalexin

A novel drug delivery system, loaded the drug cephalexin on the basil seed mucilage coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄@BSM-CPX) was prepared and characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Furier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and Anti-bacterial, and Specific Surface (BET). By comparing the size of the uncoated nanoparticles (12nm) and the size of the coated magnetite nanoparticles (6nm), it was found that with the mucilage coating being put on the magnetite nanoparticles, the size of the nanoparticle cores has also decreased. The optimum pH results showed that the higher adsorption capacity occurs when cephalexin is cationic at pH2.5 because the NH₃⁺ group of cephalexin interacts better with negative functional groups of the basil seed mucilage. Disk Diffusion Anti-Bacterial test showed that the loading of CPX on the Fe₃O₄@BSM nanocarrier, not only does not have any negative effects on the structure and performance of the drug, but also increases the antibacterial properties of CPX. Furthermore, the in vitro release of Fe₃O₄@BSM-CPX nanocomposites showed an initial burst release in the first 18h, followed by a more gradual and sustained release for 120h.