Antioxidant activity and controlled drug delivery potential of tragacanth gum-cl- poly (lactic acid-co-itaconic acid) hydrogel

Tragacanth gum-cl-poly (lactic acid–co-itaconic acid) (TG-cl-p(LA-co-IA)) hydrogel is synthesized through graft copolymerization reaction using microwave assisted technique. The synthesized hydrogel was characterised using various analytical and characterization techniques such as FTIR, FESEM, XRD, TGA, TEM and SEM. It was observed that, the maximum percentage swelling (Ps) of the hydrogel was 311.61% after 6 h at room temperature and 298.06% after 3 h at 60 °C and TG-cl-p(LA-co-IA) exhibited highest Amoxicillin loading (73%) in double distilled waterafter 24 h. From the controlled release studies, it was evident that maximum drug release of about 96% took place at pH 2.2 = after 6 h. The synthesized hydrogel also showed mild antioxidant properties and 43.85% of free radical scavenging was occurred at a concentration of 640 μg/mL and hence it can be effectively used to reduce the oxidative stresses. In addition to this, the antibacterial studies also showed that it is more effective against S. aureus.