Researchers from Cornell University are enhancing the functionality of standard cotton gauze for wound treatment by coating it with nanofibers.

The new cotton bandage promises to help combat bacterial infections and heal chronic wounds by leveraging the antioxidant and antibacterial qualities of Lawsone, which is a component in henna leaves.

Source: Cornell University

While cotton is often used in wound dressing, it struggles to promote healing and to actively treat infections. However, the researchers discovered that Lawsone has been shown to expedite wound healing, but only with some modifications, the team explained.

Specifically, Lawsone is soluble in solution and demonstrates low absorption by the body. As such, the team used cyclodextrins, which are a family of natural oligosaccharides derived from starch, to create a nanofibrous coating combining lawsone and cyclodextrin via electrospinning. Once combined, the coating was applied to a non-woven cotton pad.

In the lab, the coated dressing demonstrated significantly higher antioxidant activity, thereby suggesting its potential for faster wound healing.

Further, the new dressing successfully eliminated E. coli and staph germs and proved that it could be used on chronic wounds like diabetic ulcers and burns, which are prone to infection.

The bandage is detailed in the article, Functionalization of cotton nonwoven with cyclodextrin/lawsone inclusion complex nanofibrous coating for antibacterial wound dressing, which appears in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics.