Antibacterial activity and sustained release properties of curcumin-loaded chitosan microspheres/nanofiber composites membranes for wound healing applications

The application of bioactive curcumin is limited due to its poor stability, lower absorption, and fast metabolism in the human body. In the present study, chitosan/curcumin microspheres were prepared by reverse emulsion polymerization and electrospun with polyvinyl alcohol to fabricate chitosan/curcumin microspheres with polyvinyl alcohol composite nanofibrous membranes. The fiber morphology of chitosan/curcumin microspheres/polyvinyl alcohol composite nanofibrous membranes was observed by scanning electron microscopy, indicating that there are more continuous and uniform fibers of chitosan/curcumin microspheres/polyvinyl alcohol than those without chitosan/curcumin microspheres. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was applied to test the chemical structural changes of nanofibrous membranes, which showed that chitosan/curcumin microspheres were physically mixed with polyvinyl alcohol. The mechanical properties of the samples were tested by an electronic fabric strength machine and the tensile strength of the composite nanofibrous membranes can reach 7.e Mpa. The introduced drug release profiles indicated that after 60 h of culturing, the release rate of composite nanofibrous membranes was 69.8%. The bacterial inhibition rate of the composite nanofibrous membranes was assessed through the oscillation method. The results obtained revealed that the bacterial inhibition rate of chitosan/curcumin microspheres/polyvinyl alcohol composite nanofibers was detected up to 99.9% in the 48 h antimicrobial test.