FUNCTIONAL COMPOSITE NANOFIBERS DERIVED FROM NATURAL EXTRACT OF SATUREJA HORTENSIS

Year 2017, Volume: 18 Issue: 5, 908 - 918, 30.09.2017

Hazal Gergeroglu Huseyin Avcı

https://doi.org/10.18038/aubtda.339963

Abstract

Development of
environmentally friendly and natural-based products with healing properties has
become a popular trend for human health. Here, for the first time as far as
known, we reported an efficient antibacterial composite nanofiber which was
functionalized with the herbal extract of Satureja hortensis (SH) via
electrospinning technique for wound care dressing applications. The plant which
was used for this purpose is cultivated on a commercial scale in our country,
Turkey, and it is relatively inexpensive and widely used. Investigation of the
herbal extract demonstrated 227% higher antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus
aureus and 141% higher for Pseudomonas aeruginosa when compared with
a commonly used strong antibiotic of amoxicillin. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-based
composite nanofibers including SH with a diameter of about 734 nm for the wound
dressings also showed efficient antibacterial activity against these two pathogens
which can lead significant health problems and deaths. FTIR characterization
confirmed that there is no chemical change of SH when it was incorporated to the
composite polymeric nanofibers by the electrospinning technique. We strongly
believe that the obtained results suggest a potential natural-based
eco-friendly approach for wound care dressing in contrast with synthetic and
metal based-antibacterial agents, which have many negative effects on human
body and the environment.

Keywords

herbal extract, nanofiber, electrospinning, antibacterial, wound dressing

References

• Phaechamud T, Issarayungyuen P, Pichayakorn W. Gentamicin sulfate-loaded porous natural rubber films for wound dressing. Int J Biol Macromolec 2016; 85: 634–644.