Alyssum lepidiummucilage as a new source for electrospinning: production and physicochemical characterisation

Abstract

The electrospinning technique was used for the nanofiber production of Alyssum lepidium mucilage with acetic acid and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer. Some parameters such as voltage, polymer concentration, tip-to-collector distance, and feed rate were optimised and applied for the fabrication of the nanofiber membranes of the seeds mucilage. The scanning electron microscopy images were used to find the optimised conditions for the electrospinning process. It was found that the aqueous solution of Alyssum mucilage/PVA (80:20), voltage (18 kV), polymer concentration (50%), tip-to-collector distance (10 cm) and feed rate (0.125 ml/h) could be successfully used to obtain uniform nanofibers with diameters as low as 139.9 nm. Xray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer analysis also proved the presence of the alyssum mucilage/PVA nanofiber. In this study, the used electrospun procedure was biodegradable, inexpensive, non-toxic, and maintainable enough to optimise the mucilage nanofiber fabrication as a new source, thereby improving the potential application of the nanofiber biomembrane in filtration and medical systems with biocompatible and biodegradable properties.

Fabrication and characterization of electrospun Plantago major seed mucilage/PVA nanofibers

“…This can be attributed to lower repulsive forces in PVA solution during spinning . These results were similar to the findings of the previous studies …”

“…Seed mucilage of P. major was extracted according to Golkar et al 25 One gram of seeds was added to 10 mL of boiling hydrochloric acid 0.1 M until the color of the seeds was changed and the mucilage was produced. Then, the mixture of seeds and mucilage were washed twice with 5.0 mL of boiling distilled water.…”

“…Furthermore, the optimal condition for electrospinning of seed mucilage/PVA nanofiber of cress seed mucilage was obtained at 60:40 volume ratio and 18.0 kV voltage. Golkar et al 25 reported that the increase of the feed rate could be obtained without any bead formation.…”

“…24 Mucilage compounds, originated from mucilaginous plants, could be considered as the main candidates for electrospinning. 25 Plant mucilages are suitable sources for electrospinning because of their high molecular weight and charge density due to the presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups in their chemical structures. 26 In order to have a spinnable solution, mucilages should blend with sppinable synthetic or natural polymers.…”

“…They developed PVA/CSM and PVA/BSM nanofibers with average diameter of 75-278 and 179-390 nm, respectively, and their results showed that the average diameter of PVA/mucilage nanofibers decrease as mucilage content increases. Previous studies have demonstrated that PVA acts as an adding agent for seed mucilages in order to make the solution spinnable 26,34,25 Considering all the above-mentioned beneficial characteristics of P. major mucilage (PMM) and production effective parameters, the aim of this study was to fabricate and characterize PMM/PVA electrospun nanofiber with potential application in scaffolds and drug delivery systems.…”