The preparation of nanofibers by electrospinning of food gum has been a challenge. Here, we reported a strategy for preparing narrow nanofibers by reducing the surface tension and enhancing the conductivity of “low concentration and high viscosity” food gum solution. The addition of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) improved the spinnability of guar gum (GG), propylene glycol alginate (PGA), and Gleditsia Sinensis lam gum (GSLG) solutions, allowing them to form Taylor cones during electrospinning, while volume shrinkage was activated with a higher solvent evaporation rate to reduce fiber diameter. Besides, based on fiber diameter, solution properties, and electrospinning setting, we proposed a kinetic model of fiber diameter. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the average diameters of the fibers were 110, 90, and 100 nm for GG/CTAB, PGA/CTAB, and GSLG/CTAB, respectively. Correspondingly, the theoretical diameters of the kinetic models were 117.4, 102.4, and 109.6 nm, respectively, verifying the accuracy of the kinetic model.
Fu Liu,Jie Zheng,Cai-Huan Huang,Chuan-He Tang,Shi-Yi Ou
The development of high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by food-grade particles (e.g., cellulose nanocrystals, CNCs) has attracted increasing interests in the food colloid field. This paper reports a type of oil-in-water HIPEs using protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA)-covered CNCs as effective stabilizers. The BSA-covered CNCs were simply obtained by mixing aqueous solutions of anionic CNCs with the cationic BSA at pH 3.0. Turbidity and absorption measurements proved the binding of BSA to CNCs. The strong interaction and aggregation of BSA-covered CNCs were verified by atomic force microscopy measurements. Interestingly, the 0.5% (w/v) CNCs covered with a low amount of BSA (0.01%–0.1%, w/v) as the emulsifying agent yielded very stable, gel-like HIPEs ( ϕ = 0.8). The stiffness and microstructure of the HIPEs can be modulated either by changing the surface protein coverage at a fixed CNC concentration or by changing the concentration of CNCs with a fixed surface protein coverage (e.g., 80%). The improvement of the stiffness was largely attributed to the enhanced droplet packing effect and interfacial bridging effect. These findings offer a promising opportunity to extend the applications of protein-modified CNCs in the food and pharmaceutical industries.
Most commonly used wound dressings have severe problems, such as an inability to adapt to wound shape or a lack of antibacterial capacity, affecting their ability to meet the requirements of clinical applications. Here, a nanocomposite hydrogel (XKP) is developed by introducing polydopamine nanoparticles (PDA NPs) into a food gum matrix (XK, consisting of xanthan gum and konjac glucomannan, both FDA-approved food thickening agents) for skin wound healing. In this system, the embedded PDA NPs not only interact with the food gum matrix to form a hydrogel with excellent mechanical strength, but also act as photothermal transduction agents to convert near-infrared laser radiation to heat, thereby triggering bacterial death. Moreover, the XKP hydrogel has high elasticity and tunable water content, enabling it to adapt to the shape of the wound and insulate it, providing a moist environment suitable for healing. In-vivo skin wound healing results clearly demonstrate that XKP can significantly accelerate the healing of wounds by reducing the inflammatory response and promoting vascular reconstruction. In summary, this strategy provides a simple and practical method to overcome the drawbacks of traditional wound dressings, and provides further options when choosing suitable wound healing materials for clinical applications.
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