Guwahati: Indian researchers have developed a smart bandage that facilitates pH-regulated herbal drug delivery in wounds and aids in faster healing.

Scientists from the Guwahati-based Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology, developed the delivery system by fabricating a nanotechnology-based cotton patch that uses cheap and sustainable materials like cotton and jute.

A team led by Dr Devasish Chowdhury, Associate Professor, IASST, fabricated a nanocomposite hydrogel bound compact cotton patch incorporated with jute carbon dots to carry out the drug release.

Jute has been used for the first time as a precursor in synthesizing fluorescent carbon dots, and water was used as the dispersion medium. Herbal formulation neem leaf (Azadirachtaindica) extract was taken as the model drug to exemplify the release study.

The study published in the journal ACS Sustainable Chemical Engineering demonstrated the stimuli-responsive drug delivery system using natural products – jute and neem leaf extract. The jute carbon dots were immobilized in the hydrogel matrix-bound cotton patch and could effectively exemplify different drug release pattern at two different pH levels, lower at pH 5 and higher at pH 7.

The stimuli-responsive nature of the fabricated hybrid cotton patch acts as an advantage. For instance, in case of growth of bacterial infections in a wound, the bandage induces the release of drug at lower pH which is favourable under these conditions.

The pH-responsive behaviour of the fabricated cotton patch lies in the unique behaviour of the jute carbon dots incorporated in the system because of the different molecular linkages formed during the carbon dot preparation.

Dr Devasish Chowdhury’s group had earlier fabricated a compact cotton patch that showed excellent wound healing ability but posed a disadvantage because of uncontrolled release when the drug was loaded to it. In the present work, they controlled the drug release of the cotton patch, thereby making it a smart wound dressing material.