Antioxidant activity and controlled drug delivery potential of tragacanth gum-cl- poly (lactic acid-co-itaconic acid) hydrogel

[Display omitted] •Gum Tragacanth-cl-poly (lactic acid-co-itaconic acid) hydrogel was prepared under microwave irridiation.•Various techniques have confirmed the formation of hydrogel.•The drug loading and release behaviour of hydrogel and kinetics were investigated using amoxicillin.•Antioxidant properties of the hydrogel were also studied. Tragacanth gum-cl-poly (lactic acid–co-itaconic acid) (TG-cl-p(LA-co-IA)) hydrogel is synthesized through graft copolymerization reaction using microwave assisted technique. The synthesized hydrogel was characterised using various analytical and characterization techniques such as FTIR, FESEM, XRD, TGA, TEM and SEM. It was observed that, the maximum percentage swelling (Ps) of the hydrogel was 311.61% after 6h at room temperature and 298.06% after 3h at 60°C and TG-cl-p(LA-co-IA) exhibited highest Amoxicillin loading (73%) in double distilled waterafter 24h. From the controlled release studies, it was evident that maximum drug release of about 96% took place at pH 2.2=after 6h. The synthesized hydrogel also showed mild antioxidant properties and 43.85% of free radical scavenging was occurred at a concentration of 640μg/mL and hence it can be effectively used to reduce the oxidative stresses. In addition to this, the antibacterial studies also showed that it is more effective against S. aureus.