Fabrication and Characterization of Keratin-Tamanu Biocellulose Hydrogel for Wound Healing

Abstract

Introduction: Bacterial cellulose (BC) is a biopolymer that is usually used for wound healing. It can be formed through the fermentation of gram-negative bacteria with a medium that contains nitrogen and carbon sources. In recent years, some researchers try to modify the BC with the addition of Keratin, which helps in enhancing the skin regeneration and skin adhesion to the BC. However, the KBC still lacks its antimicrobial properties. Therefore a Keratin-Tamanu BC was formed and studied in this paper. Objective: The objective of this paper is to manufacture and characterize the Keratin-Tamanu Bacterial-Cellulose hydrogel for wound healing. Methods: The BC was made with Komagataeibacter intermedius bacteria. After the BC was formed, it was submerged in Keratin-Tamanu mixtures and its characterization was done by testing its antimicrobial activity, swelling erosion test, and FTIR. Results: KT-BC has shown that it has an antibacterial activity although its inhibition rate was not greater than Chloramphenicol, which is the positive control. In the FTIR spectrum result, the presence of keratin seems hindered by the tamanu extract. However, in the swelling and erosion test, the keratin still showed some impact with its result. The KT-BC showed a quite high swelling index with a low percentage of erosion compared to BC only and the KBC sample, although it was not as good as the Tamanu BC. Conclusion: The presence of Tamanu in KT-BC hydrogel had an impact on facilitating antimicrobial properties in wound healing. Through the experiment, KT-BC also showed that it has a better water uptake ability with higher durability compared to the BC only and KBC sample, but it was still not as good as the Tamanu BC.