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DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIMICROBIAL HYDROGELS USING ALGINATE-CHITOSAN MATRIX ENHANCED WITH ESSENTIAL OILS

FLORIN ALEXANDRU JOIȚA 1#, ELIZA OPREA 2#, ADINA MAGDALENA MUSUC 3#, MAGDALENA MITITELU 1*, FLORICA MARINESCU 2, DUMITRU LUPULIASA 1, LUCIAN HÎNCU 1, ADRIAN COSMIN ROȘCA 4, STELUȚA CONSTANȚA BOROGHINĂ 1, IOANA ANDREEA POPESCU 1

1 Faculty of Pharmacy, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 020956, Bucharest, Romania
2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest, 1-3 Portocalilor Street, 060101, Bucharest, Romania
3 Institute of Physical Chemistry – Ilie Murgulescu, Romanian Academy, 060021, Bucharest, Romania
4 Department of Drug Analysis, Biopharmacy and Biological Medicines, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Ovidius” University of Constanța, 900470, Constanța, Romania

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Alginate and chitosan-based hydrogels enhanced with volatile oils represent a promising solution for developing advanced biomaterials with applications in the medical field, including the treatment of infections and inflammation. The study's main objective was to research an optimised variant of chitosan-based hydrogels with antimicrobial activity. In the experimental part of the work, two complex formulas of hydrogels with mixed alginate-chitosan bases enhanced with volatile oils and a hydrogel with 3% chitosan also enhanced with volatile oils were developed. The stability, rheological profile, antimicrobial activity and anti-inflammatory action of the three developed hydrogel formulas were analysed, mainly aiming to identify the advantages offered by the mixed alginate-chitosan bases compared to the simple chitosan hydrogel bases. The evaluation of the rheological characteristics highlighted much-improved properties in the case of hydrogels with mixed alginate-chitosan base compared to the simple hydrogel with chitosan. Also, in terms of antimicrobial activity, the hydrogel formula with a base consisting of 2% alginate and 1.5% chitosan enriched with essential oils (volatile bay laurel oil, turmeric and rosemary) showed better efficacy on the tested microbial strains compared to the other formulations. In conclusion, this paper presents newly developed, more effective hydrogels with a mixed alginate-chitosan base with superior rheological and antimicrobial properties to simple chitosan bases through optimised formulations.