Facile Green Synthesis of Zingerone Based Tissue‐Like Biodegradable Polyester with Shape‐Memory Features for Regenerative Medicine

Abstract

The abundance of plants as a renewable bioresource has captured the significant attention of researchers, driving them to explore new biodegradable polymeric materials. However, there are still many biobased materials with untapped potential, offering opportunities to synthesize novel biodegradable polymers with multifunctional properties. This work provides a unique solvent and catalyst‐free melt polycondensation process to prepare a series of polyesters using zingerol (Zing‐OH), a reduced form of zingerone, as a primary component for the first time. Briefly, Zing‐OH (a ginger‐based component) is employed in conjunction with a variety of renewable resources, such as citric acid (CA), sebacic acid (SA), and xylitol (Xy), to synthesize multifunctional soft tissue‐like ZCSX polyesters. Fourier‐transform infrared (FTIR) and 1H‐nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are used to validate the synthesis of the polyesters, while thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and universal testing machine (UTM) are employed to investigate their physicochemical properties. Moreover, the synthesized polyester's thermal, mechanical, and biodegradation properties can be fine‐tuned by simply varying the Zing‐OH feed ratio. The mechanical properties of the synthesized polymer resemble various human tissues, including the liver, uterus, bladder, breast, and temporal and nasal cartilage. This suggests that the synthesized polyesters can potentially be useful in tissue engineering applications. Furthermore, the polyester demonstrated exceptional recovery responses and good shape memory behavior at ambient body temperature. Additionally, as observed from Alamar blue, live/dead assays, and time‐dependent in vitro wound images, the synthesized polyester demonstrated antibacterial activity, good in vitro cytocompatibility, cell proliferation, and wound healing capabilities against mouse fibroblast cells (NIH/3T3). The developed biocompatible polyester also exhibits excellent hemocompatibility for human blood, indicating its potential use in the field of regenerative medicine.