New properties of chia seed mucilage (Salvia hispanica L.) and potential application in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products

[Display omitted] •Chia mucilage biopolymer presents high photostability.•Chia mucilage presented cytocompatibility in the L929 murine fibroblast cell line.•Chia mucilage biopolymer presents a proper mucoadhesion characteristic.•New properties enable the use of biopolymer in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Mucilage extracted from chia seed (Salvia hispanica L.) (MCHs) has come to prominence in recent studies due to its attractive biological activities, improving the interest in developing Salvia hispanica as an industrial crop for sustainable source of bioactive polysaccharide. In this work, chia mucilage properties were evaluated, including physicochemical, photostability, cytocompatibility, and mucoadhesion characteristics. MCHs exhibited excellent photostability, with a degradation percentage of 6.6 % after 120 min under UV light. MTT assay results showed excellent cytocompatibility of MCHs on the L929 fibroblast cell line and additionally, the biomaterial showed promising mucoadhesive activity. Overall, the knowledge of these new properties of chia mucilage reinforces the multipotential feature of this biopolymer for application in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.