Study of novel rosin-based biomaterials for pharmaceutical coating

Self-Disinfecting Paints with the Natural Antimicrobial Substances: Colophony and Curcumin

The risk of infection arising from indirect sources-namely, contaminated surfaces-has been proved, particularly in healthcare facilities. In the attempt to minimize this problem, innumerable research projects involving the development of surfaces with self-disinfecting properties are being conducted. In this work, wall-paints with self-disinfecting properties were developed with the scope of being applied in environments prone to contamination, such as those at healthcare settings. Our approach was to develop new paint formulations containing two natural plant-based products with known antimicrobial activity-colophony (CLF) and curcumin (CUR). The natural substances were separately incorporated on a commercial paint and their antibacterial activity was evaluated with several bacterial species following ISO 22196. To assess the paints' safety, cytotoxicity tests were performed on HaCaT and A549 cell lines, using tests on extracts and direct contact tests, as suggested by the standardized protocol ISO 10993. In general, both paints containing CLF and CUR were able to reduce the bacterial growth after 24 h, compared with the control, the commercial unmodified paint. Colophony was even able to reduce the number of culturable bacteria by over 2 log for Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Bacillus cereus. Regarding the cytotoxicity tests performed (WST-1, NRU, and LDH), both formulations revealed promising results regardless of the methodology used.

Crude Wood Rosin and Its Derivatives as Hydrophobic Surface Treatment Additives for Paper and Packaging

The aim of this work is to obtain better water resistance properties with additives to starch at the size press. A further goal is to replace petroleum-based additives with environmentally friendly hydrophobic agents obtained by derivatization of wood rosin. A crude wood rosin (CWR) sample was methylated and analyzed with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Methyl abietate, dehydroabietic acid, and abietic acid were the main constituents of the sample. The crude wood rosin samples were fortified with fumaric acid and then esterified with pentaerythritol. Fortified and esterified wood rosin samples were dissolved in ethanol and emulsified with cationic starch to make them suitable as hydrophobic additives for surface treatment formulations in mixtures with starch. These hydrophobic agents (2% on a dry weight basis in a cationic starch solution) were applied to paperboard, bleached kraft paper, and test liner paper using a rod coater with a target pickup of 3-5 gsm. The solution pickup was controlled by varying the rod number. The amounts of hydrophobic material applied in the preparation of the paper samples were 32.2, 48.6, and 35.1 lb/ton pickup compared to three types of base papers. Basic surface features of fortified and fortified and esterified rosin-treated paper were compared with base paper and paper treated with starch alone. Lower Cobb₆₀ values were obtained for fortified and esterified samples than for linerboard samples that had been surface-sized just by starch. Thus, as novel hydrophobic additive agents, derivatives of CWR can be a green way to increase hydrophobicity while reducing starch consumption in papermaking.

Polymeric plant-derived excipients in drug delivery

Drug dosage forms contain many components in addition to the active pharmaceutical ingredient(s) to assist in the manufacturing process as well as to optimise drug delivery. Due to advances in drug delivery technology, excipients are currently included in novel dosage forms to fulfil specific functions and in some cases they directly or indirectly influence the extent and/or rate of drug release and absorption. Since plant polysaccharides comply with many requirements expected of pharmaceutical excipients such as non-toxicity, stability, availability and renewability they are extensively investigated for use in the development of solid oral dosage forms. Furthermore, polysaccharides with varying physicochemical properties can be extracted from plants at relatively low cost and can be chemically modified to suit specific needs. As an example, many polysaccharide-rich plant materials are successfully used as matrix formers in modified release dosage forms. Some natural polysaccharides have even shown environmental-responsive gelation characteristics with the potential to control drug release according to specific therapeutic needs. This review discusses some of the most important plant-derived polymeric compounds that are used or investigated as excipients in drug delivery systems.

Study of the biodegradation and in vivo biocompatibility of novel biomaterials

The degradation of two rosin-based biomaterials, the glycerol ester of maleic rosin (GMR) and the pentaerythritol ester of maleic rosin (PMR), was examined in vitro in phosphate-buffered saline at pH 7.4 and in vivo in a subcutaneous rat model. Free films of the two biomaterials with mean thickness 0.4+/-0.02 mm were used for the study. The initial biocompatibility was followed by microscopic examination of the inflammatory tissue response to the implanted films. Sample weight loss and molecular weight decline of the free films was used to monitor the degradation quantitatively, while surface morphological changes were analysed for qualitative estimation. Biocompatibility response was followed on post-operative days 7, 14, 21 and 28 and compared with those of poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) (50:50) films. Both biomaterials showed slow in vitro degradation when compared with the in vivo rate. The mechanism followed was, however, bulk degradation of the films. The penta-esterified form of maleic rosin was observed to degrade more rapidly than glycerol esterified maleic rosin. The acute and subacute inflammatory reactions were characterized by fibrosis at the end of 28 days. The biomaterials showed reasonable tissue tolerance to the extent evaluated. There was a total absence of tissue necrosis or abscess formation for all implanted films. The response, although not identical to that of PLGA, is reasonable, promising new drug delivery applications for rosin biomaterials.