The scientists in India have developed a pH responsive smart bandage that helps in healing wounds in a smart way. The pH responsive bandage only delivers the medicine applied on the wound as per the pH suitable for the wound.
The pH smart bandage has been developed by the scientists at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology.
IASST Associate professor Dr Devasish Chowdhury said that nanocomposite hydrogel bound compact cotton patch incorporated with jute carbon dots was fabricated to carry out the drug release. He said that jute was used for the first time as a precursor in synthesizing fluorescent carbon dots. Apart from this water was used as the dispersion medium. Herbal formulation neem leaf extract was taken as the model drug to exemplify the release study.
The jute carbon dots were immobilized in the hydrogel matrix-bound cotton patch, an official release said.
Chowdhury noted that the stimuli-responsive nature of the fabricated hybrid cotton patch acted as an advantage as in case of growth of bacterial infections in a wound, and this induced the release of drug at lower pH which is favourable under these conditions. This 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.
pH value changes around any wound due to bacterial infections. This was taken into account while developing the smart bandage.
