A Supramolecular Hydrogel of Puerarin

Supramolecular hydrogels have drawn increased attention because of their advantages in facile synthesis, biocompatibility, easy degradation and fast responses to external stimuli. Until now, the example of hydrogelators of pure natural resources has rarely been reported. Here, we report on a novel hydrogelator of a natural resource, puerarin, which could self-assemble to hydrogels with excellent antioxidant properties and tremendous acid resistance. Our PG-4 could overcome exogenous ROS injury and promote the survival rate of H₂O₂ treated MSCs by down-regulating SOD activity and MDA level by 21.6% and 28.7% respectively. In addition, utilizing the good acid resistance of PG-4, we investigated its application as an oral formulation. The dissolution rate of puerarin in intestinal-fluid analogue (87.8% at 12 hr) was much faster than that in gastric-fluid analogue (35.6% at 12 hr), which demonstrated that the majority of puerarin was diffused from PG-4 in simulated intestinal fluid. The corresponding pharmacokinetics parameters indicated that PG-4 remarkably improved the absorption of puerarin by oral administration.