Production of antibacterial scaffold by an integrated supercritical extraction and impregnation process

MARÍA ALEJANDRA FANOVICH; I. ZIZOVIC; P. JAEBER; J. IVANOVIC; D. MISIC; JUAN MANUEL RODRIGUEZ

Praga

Congreso; 20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering; 2012

Czech Society of Chemical Engineering

The present study is aimed to develop a process for production of functionalized biomaterial impregnated with natural compounds extracted from two Usnea lichens. A setup for an integrated supercritical CO2 extraction of natural compounds with posterior impregnation on solid matrices (polycaprolactone, PCL) was developed and presented here. In order to propose optimized operating conditions, the processes of supercritical extraction and impregnation have been studied separately first. The optimum conditions for supercritical extraction of Usnea barbata and Usnea lethariiformis lichens with respect to yield and antibacterial activity were determined as 30 MPa and 40°C. Usnea extracts isolated at these conditions have shown strong antibacterial activity with values of MIC ranging from less than 1.25 μg/ml to 40 μg/ml. Useful scaffolds of PCL containing a porous structure with pore diameters of approximately 200 μm can be obtained when the PLC samples are treated at 35ºC and 15 MPa. Further, preliminary tests on antibacterial activity of PCL impregnated with supercritical Usnea barbata extract showed that in investigated concentrations, PCL significantly slowed down multiplication of investigated MRSA strains.