Natural products are used in wound healing in order to prevent infection. Propolis is a well known antimicrobial with phenolic compounds and flavonoid content which vary according to the propolis origin. Besides propolis (from both Brazilian and UK sources), pomegranate, dragon's blood and sage are possible antimicrobials to be used in biomaterials. The goal of this work was to analyze the amount of phenols and flavonoid compounds in these natural products, their antioxidant activities and the bonds present by FTIR. The FTIR analysis revealed the presence of active compounds in all drug samples. The phenols quantification showed that Brazilian propolis was rich in phenols compared to the other drugs, followed by pomegranate and UK propolis. UK propolis was the most rich in flavonoids, which is expected on account of its origin. Pomegranate, UK propolis and Dragon's blood presented the highest antioxidant activity. All samples presented antioxidant activity > 82%.

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels are materials for potential use in burn healing. Silver nanoparticles can be synthesized within PVA hydrogels giving antimicrobial hydrogels. Hydrogels have to be swollen prior to their application, and the common medium available for that in hospitals is saline solution, but the hydrogel could also take up some of the wound's fluid. This work developed gamma-irradiated PVA/nano-Ag hydrogels for potential use in burn dressing applications. Silver nitrate (AgNO ₃ ) was used as nano-Ag precursor agent. Saline solution, phosphate-buffered solution (PBS) pH 7.4 and solution pH 4.0 were used as swelling media. Microstructural evaluation revealed an effect of the nanoparticles on PVA crystallization. The swelling of the PVA-Ag samples in solution pH 4.0 was low, as was their silver delivery, compared with the equivalent samples swollen in the other media. The highest swelling and silver delivery were related to samples prepared with 0.50% AgNO ₃ , and they also presented lower strength in PBS pH 7.4 and solution pH 4.0. Both PVA-Ag samples were also non-toxic and presented antimicrobial activity, confirming that 0.25% AgNO ₃ concentration is sufficient to establish an antimicrobial effect. Both PVA-Ag samples presented suitable mechanical and swelling properties in all media, representative of potential burn site conditions.

The development of non-cellularized injectable suspensions of viscous chitosan (CHI) solutions (1.7–3.3% (w/w)), filled with cellulose nanofibers (CNF) (0.02–0.6% (w/w)) of the type nanofibrillated cellulose, was proposed for viscosupplementation of the intervertebral disc nucleus pulposus tissue. The achievement of CNF/CHI formulations which can gel in situ at the disc injection site constitutes a minimally-invasive approach to restore damaged/degenerated discs. We studied physico-chemical aspects of the sol and gel states of the CNF/CHI formulations, including the rheological behavior in relation to injectability (sol state) and fiber mechanical reinforcement (gel state). CNF-CHI interactions could be evidenced by a double flow behavior due to the relaxation of the CHI polymer chains and those interacting with the CNFs. At high shear rates resembling the injection conditions with needles commonly used in surgical treatments, both the reference CHI viscous solutions and those filled with CNFs exhibited similar rheological behavior. The neutralization of the flowing and weakly acidic CNF/CHI suspensions yielded composite hydrogels in which the nanofibers reinforced the CHI matrix. We performed evaluations in relation to the biomedical application, such as the effect of the intradiscal injection of the CNF/CHI formulation in pig and rabbit spine models on disc biomechanics. We showed that the injectable formulations became hydrogels in situ after intradiscal gelation, due to CHI neutralization occurring in contact with the body fluids. No leakage of the injectate through the injection canal was observed and the gelled formulation restored the disc height and loss of mechanical properties, which is commonly related to disc degeneration.