This study explores the potential roles of gallic acid in fish gelatin film for improving mechanical properties, UV barrier, and providing antioxidant activities. Glycerol, a common used plasticizer, also impacts on mechanical properties of the film. A factorial design was used to investigate the effects of gallic acid and glycerol concentrations on antioxidant activities and mechanical properties of fish gelatin film. Increasing the amount of gallic acid increased the antioxidant capacities of the film measured by radical scavenging assay and the ferric reducing ability of plasma assay. The released antioxidant power of gallic acid from the film was not reduced by glycerol. The presence of gallic acid not only increased the antioxidant capacity of the film, but also increased the tensile strength, elongation at break, and reduced UV absorption due to interaction between gallic acid and protein by hydrogen bonding. Glycerol did not affect the antioxidant capacities of the film, but increased the elasticity of the films. Overall, this study revealed that gallic acid entrapped in the fish gelatin film provided antioxidant activities and improved film characteristics, namely UV barrier, strength, and elasticity of the film.
A bioactive O-carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) hydrogel crosslinked with natural phenolics with potential application in wound dressings was synthesized using a laccase from Myceliophthora thermophila (MTL). The highest degree of cross-linking (49.7%) was achieved with catechol. All the phenolic-CMCS hydrogels synthesized showed excellent anti-oxidant properties with a free radical scavenging activity up to 4-fold higher than in the absence of the phenolics, as quantified by the di(phenyl)-(2,4,6-trinitrophenyl)iminoazanium (DPPH) assay. In addition, the hydrogels produced showed an anti-inflammatory effect as evidenced by the inhibition of enzymes [myeloperoxidase (MPO), matrix-metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) and human neutrophil elastase (HNE)] over-expressed in chronic wounds. Sinapyl-CMCS hydrogels showed an MMP-1 inhibition of 37%. Further, the phenolic-CMCS hydrogels did not affect the viability of the NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cell line and were also able to slowly release human fibroblast growth factor 2, reaching 48.3% over a period of 28days. This study thus shows the possibility of synthesizing multifunctional bioactive chitosan based hydrogels with anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties using natural occurring phenolics as crosslinkers.
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