Regenerated silk fibroin loaded with natural additives: a sustainable approach towards health care

Abstract

According to World Health Organization (WHO), on average, 0.5 Kg of hazardous waste is generated per bed every day in high-income countries. The adverse effects imposed by synthetic materials and chemicals on the environment and humankind have urged researchers to explore greener technologies and materials. Amidst of all the natural fibers, silk fibroin (SF), by virtue of its superior toughness (6 × 10⁴∼16 × 10⁴ J/kg), tensile strength (47.2–67.7 MPa), tunable biodegradability, excellent Young’s modulus (1.9–3.9 GPa), presence of functional groups, ease of processing, and biocompatibility has garnered an enormous amount of scientific interests. The use of silk fibroin conjoint with purely natural materials can be an excellent solution for the adverse effects of chemical-based treatment techniques. Considering this noteworthiness, vigorous research is going on in silk-based biomaterials, and it is opening up new vistas of opportunities. This review enswathes the structural aspects of silk fibroin along with its potency to form composites with other natural materials, such as curcumin, keratin, alginate, hydroxyapatite, hyaluronic acid, and cellulose, that can replace the conventionally used synthetic materials, providing a sustainable pathway to biomedical engineering. It was observed that a large amount of polar functional moieties present on the silk fibroin surface enables them to compatibilize easily with the natural additives. The conjunction of silk with natural additives initiates synergistic interactions that mitigate the limitations offered by individual units as well as enhance the applicability of materials. Further the current status and challenges in the commercialization of silk-based biomedical devices are discussed.

Use of natural additive loaded silk fibroin: A sustainable approach towards health care.

Keywords:

• Silk fibroin
• natural additives
• biomedical
• green technology

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. C. P. Ramanarayanan, Vice-Chancellor of DIAT (DU), Pune, for their encouragement and support. First author would like to thank all the group members for their kind support. The authors are thankful to the editor and anonymous reviewers who has helped in improving the quality of the manuscript.

Authors’ contributions

N Jaya Prakash contributed to material preparation, data collection analysis, and writing of the article. X Wang reviewed the article and B Kandasubramanian made a substantial contributions to conceptualization, discussion and reviewed the manuscript before submission.

Availability of data and material

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the submitted manuscript

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

The submitted article complies with the ethical guidelines of the journal and does not contain the results of studies involving humans and/or animals.

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.