Wound healing activities of PVA–urea composites from Ormocarpum cochinchinense

Abstract

The aim of this work is to prepare ternary blended polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)–urea hydrogels containing Ormocarpum cochinchinense, Cinnamomum zeylanicum and antibiotic cephalexin by freezing-thawing method in order to assess the wound healing qualities. In addition to being a synthetic polymer, PVA is a recyclable and biocompatible artificial polymer blend that has attracted a lot of interest in biological applications. The freezing-thawing process with PVA–urea blend is used to make hydrogel film. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and swelling investigations were carried out for the composite membranes. Biological studies involving antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxicity and wound healing activities were also carried out for the composite membranes. The composite membrane developed has a lot of potential for wound dressing and other applications.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• PVA
• urea
• Ormocarpum cochinchinense
• Cinnamomum zeylanicum
• cephalexin
• wound dressings

Disclosure statement

There are no conflicts of interest disclosed by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to DST-FIST (fund for the improvement of Science and Technology) for providing financial support to the Department of Chemistry at the SRM Institute of Science and Technology (Grant no. SR/FST/CST-462 266/2015(c)).