Natural wound dressing from acid-modified basil seed mucilage containing aloe vera extract

Abstract

There have been several studies that have applied basil )Ocimum basilicum L.( seed mucilage )BSM( as a wound dressing materials using several types of synthetic antimicrobial agents. This research reports on the application of BSM as a green wound dressing using natural substance, namely aloe vera (AV) extract for the improvement of antibacterial activity. Due to poor dimensional stability of BSM, malonic acid (MA) was used to crosslink the BSM molecules. The MA resulted in the esterification reaction between BSM molecules, as revealed by FTIR peak position of the C=O stretching. The porosity, water retention and swelling of BSM sponges were noted to decrease, while stiffness increased upon crosslinking. Incorporation of AV extract into both BSM and MA-crosslinked BSM sponges did not affect hydrophilicity, mechanical properties, thermal properties and cytotoxicity toward HaCaT cells. On the other hand, antibacterial activities against both Gram-positive bacteria )Staphylococcus aureus( and Gram-negative bacteria )Pseudomonas aeruginosa( of BSM and BSM crosslinked by MA were observed upon the addition of the AV extract.