Designing biphasic gels from dietary fiber sterculia gum by green approach using high energy radiation for biomedical applications

Polysaccharides have been applied in food and biomedical applications. Bioactive dietary fiber sterculia gum (SG) has been used for treatment of diarrhea. Therefore, in present research, SG has been used for development of drug delivery (DD) system for controlled release of metronidazole to improve its pharmacotherapy for amoebic dysentery. Co-polymers were characterized by Cryo-scanning electron microscopy (Cryo-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy,), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Haemolytic index values of grafted product was less than 5 percent and DPPH assay illustrated free radical scavenging of hydrogels and bigels 74.00 ± 0.003% and 47.00 ± 0.005% respectively. Mucoadhesion experiment demonstrated that both hydrogels and bigels exhibited adhesion with intestinal mucus membrane required 0.034 ± 0.004 and 0.037 ± 0.002 N detachment force during mucoadhesion test. Diffusion of metronidazole was slow in sustained manner with Fickian diffusion mechanism. Overall results revealed biocompatible, antioxidant, and mucoadhesive properties of sterculia gum based gels which may be useful for DD applications of gastrointestinal infections.