Bergenia stracheyi extract-based hybrid hydrogels of biocompatible polymers with good adhesive, stretching, swelling, self-healing, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties

An ultra-stretchable, quickly self-healable, adhesive hydrogel with efficient anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial activities makes it potential wound dressing material, particularly in healing skin wounds. However, it is highly challenging to prepare such hydrogels with a facile and efficient material design. Given this, we opine the synthesis of medicinal plant Bergenia stracheyi extract-loaded hybrid hydrogels of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers like Gelatin, Hydroxypropyl cellulose, and Polyethylene glycol with acrylic acid via in situ free radical polymerization reaction. The selected plant extract is rich in phenols, flavonoids, and tannins and found to have important therapeutic benefits such as anti-ulcer, anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus, anti-inflammatory, and burn wound healing effects. The polyphenolic compounds in the plant extract interacted strongly via hydrogen bonding with –OH, -NH2, -COOH, and C-O-C groups of the macromolecules. The synthesized hydrogels were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and rheology. The as-prepared hydrogels demonstrate ideal tissue adhesion, excellent stretchability, good mechanical strength, broad-band anti-bacterial capability, and efficient anti-oxidant properties, in addition to quick self-healing and moderate swelling properties. Thus, the aforementioned properties attract the potential use of these materials in the biomedical field.