dressing nanofibrous mat is prepared incorporating Zataria multiflora nanoemulsion

into cellulose acetate/gelatine blend and using electrospinning technique to improve

wound management (Farahani et al. 2020). The fibre diameter increases with

increasing the cellulose acetate/gelatine ratio, while mechanical strength of the

fibre decreases with increasing the ratio. In vitro release study reveals a controlled

release kinetic of the herbal drug with increasing the gelatine content in the nanofibre

(Fig. 30.1b(i)). Further, the release kinetics from different nanofibres follows the

Korsmeyer-Peppas model with ‘n’ value below 0.45 indicating pseudo-Fickian

diffusion of the drug. The zone of inhibition study exhibits the nanofibre with 1:1

ratio of cellulose acetate/gelatine which shows better antibacterial activity than the

other systems against S. aureus and E. coli bacteria (Fig. 30.1b(ii)). Hence, the

nanofibre mats of cellulose acetate/gelatine incorporated with herbal drug have

potential as wound dressing material. The ‘panchavalkala’ (PV) a well-known

polyherb for wound management is incorporated into PLA film and nanofibre to

improve the efficacy of the polyherb. The incorporation of the polyherb increases the

fibre diameter of electrospun scaffold. Further, thermal stability increases, and

particle size decreases of the polyherb after incorporation into nanofibre. In vitro

release kinetics shows a controlled of the drug up to 80% continuously for 5 days

from the scaffold with an initial burst release from the scaffold, while a controlled

release of drug (45%) is observed for the film. The release kinetics follows Higuchi

model which indicates the release mechanism is highly diffusion controlled and the

initial burst release is due to large surface area of the electrospun scaffold. The cell

adhesion, cell viability and cell imaging studies with 3T3 fibroblast cell line reveal

that the presence of the polyherb improves the cell attachment and proliferation over

the scaffold indicating the developed wound dressing is biocompatible in nature

(Fig. 30.1c). Further, the enzymatic degradation studies suggest the developed

dressing mats are biodegradable in nature (Biswas et al. 2018a). Generally, sponges

are porous and flexible in nature and are capable of absorbing huge amount of

exudates. These characteristics make sponges good wound dressing materials. The

sponge made of chitosan and gelatine is very effective in wound management

(Nguyen et al. 2013). The porous structure is evident through morphological inves-

tigation. The folding endurance and percentage of drug release increase with

increasing gelatine content, while water uptake increases with increasing the

chitosan content. A greater zone of inhibition against P. aeruginosa is observed

with curcumin-loaded sponge, and it increases with increasing chitosan content.

Further, the biocompatible nature of the sponge is evident from cytotoxicity

measurement.

30.5

Efficacy of Dressing Material (In Vivo Study)

The superiority of any dressing material with or without any bioactive materials can

be determined through in vivo animal studies. Generally, animals like rat, mice or

rabbits of any sex are chosen randomly for this purpose, and a full-thickness wound

(circular or square shape) is created with the permission of Animal Experimentation

30

Polymeric Vehicles for Controlled Delivery of Ayurvedic Drugs for Wound. . .

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