Synergistic Effect of Glycyrrhizic Acid and ZnO/Palygorskite on Improving Chitosan-Based Films and Their Potential Application in Wound Healing.

Qian Zhang,Hong Zhang,Xinyue Liu,Aiqin Wang,Junjie Ding,Aiping Hui

doi:10.3390/polym13223878

Abstract

The synergistic effect of chitosan (CS), glycyrrhizic acid (GA) and ZnO/palygorskite (ZnO/PAL) as potential wound dressing was evaluated in the form of films by the solution casting method. The nanocomposite films were well-characterized with ATR-FTIR, XRD and SEM to explore the interactions between CS, GA and ZnO/PAL. Physical, mechanical and antibacterial properties of the nanocomposite films were systematically investigated for their reliability in end-up utilization. Importantly, it was found that the presence of PAL in the films provided enhanced mechanical properties, whereas CS, GA and ZnO supplied a broad-spectrum antibacterial activity, especially for drug-resistant bacteria such as ESBL—E. coli and MRSA. Overall, this research demonstrated that the prepared films can be a promising candidate for wound-care materials.

Highlights

The overuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and the spread of drug-resistant bacterial infections
As for CG film, the broad absorption bands around 3500–3000 cm−1 were assigned to the O–H and N–H stretching vibration (–OH, –NH2, between –OH and –NH2), the absorption peaks at 2882 cm−1 were assigned to the C–H symmetric stretching vibrations of –CH2 groups [38,39], at 1632 cm−1, 1551 cm−1 and 1332 cm−1 can be attributed to the C=O stretching of amide I, N–H bending of amide II and C–N stretching of amide III, respectively [40]
The absorption peak at 1408 cm−1 can be attributed to the bending stretching of –CH2 [41], at 1150 cm−1 were assigned to the symmetric stretching of C–O–C bond, and at 1028 cm−1 were assigned to the C–O stretching vibrations [42,43,44]

Summary

Introduction

The overuse of antibiotics has led to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria and the spread of drug-resistant bacterial infections. Infected skin may prevent wounds from quickly and completely healing and may even lead to a battery of serious complications [5]. Effective anti-infection control aiming to accelerate wound healing has caught a growing number of scholars’ attention [6], and it is vital to exploit wound dressings with multiple antiinfective capabilities to cope with the latent jeopardy of fearsome drug-resistant bacteria. In this area, biological macromolecules based hydrogels and films gradually show their unique advantages, especially those with antibacterial properties [7,8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion