Bio-inspired aloe vera sponges for biomedical applications

Chemical composition and biological properties of Aloe vera (AV), a tropical plant, explain its potential use for cosmetic, nutritional and biomedical applications. AV gel  present  in  AV  leaves  is  rich  in  several  compounds,  nutrients  and polysaccharides.  This  work  proposes  using  AV  gel  complex  structure  and chemical  composition,  associated  with  freeze-drying,  to  produce  sponges.  To increase the structures stability in aqueous media, a thin coating of gellan gum (GG),  was  applied  onto  AV gel. AV-based sponges showed  a  heterogeneous porous formation, interconnected pores and good porosity(72-77%). The coating with  a  GG  layer  onto  AV  influenced  the  stability,  swelling  behavior  and mechanical properties of the resulting sponges. Moreover, sponges provided the sustained release of BSA-FTIC, used as a model protein,over 3 weeks. Also, in vitro  cell culture studies evidenced that sponges are not cytotoxic for a mouse fibroblast-like cell line. Therefore, developed AV-based sponges have potential use in biomedical applications.