This paper describes the development of medical applications for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a class of natural polymers with a wide range of thermoplastic properties. Methods are described for preparing PHAs with high purity, modifying these materials to change their surface and degradation properties, and methods for fabricating them into different forms, including tissue engineering scaffo...

Naturally occurring protein-based materials have been found that function as critical components in biomechanical response, fibers and adhesives. A relatively small but growing number of recombinant protein-based materials that mimic the desired features of their natural sources, such as collagens, elastins and silks, are considered as an alternative to conventional synthetic polymers. Advances...

The aim of this study was to formulate buccal mucoadhesive nanoparticles (NPs) using the natural mucoadhesive polymers. The natural mucoadhesive polymers chitosan (CS) and dextran sulfate sodium salt (DS) were used to prepare mucoadhesive NPs using the ionic gelation method. As the molecular weight of DS decreased, the amount of mucin and the number of buccal cells adsorbed on DS increased. The...

Natural and synthetic polymers are widely used as drug delivery tools in pharmaceutical and nanomedicine biotechnology [1-5]. Among synthetic polymers, dendrimers, a family of cationic polymers, are promising nonviral vectors for gene and drug delivery because of a well-defined molecular shape, controlled chemical structure, high water solubility, large number of chemically versatile surface gr...

The presented contribution is aimed on the study of influence of various surfactants and polymers on the kinetics of reduction of diamminsilver complex cation in alkaline media using D-maltose as a reducing sugar (modified Tollens reaction). From the group of surfactants, the following types were used: anionic (sodium dodecylsulfate and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate), cationic (cetyltrimethyla...

Rheological techniques and methods have been employed for many decades in the characterization of polymers. Originally developed and used on synthetic polymers, rheology has then found much interest in the field of natural (bio) polymers. This review concentrates on introducing the fundamentals of rheology and on discussing the rheological aspects and properties of the two major classes of biop...

there has been a renewed interest in edible films made of renewable and natural polymers such as protein, polysaccharide and lipids. natural polymers derived from natural sources like food protein, offer the greatest opportunities because of their biodegradability and their ability to supplement nutritional value of foods. faba bean is a valuable source of protein and is cultivated in large qua...

1 Definition of bioplastics The two main groups of bioplastics are biobased polymers and biodegradable plastics. Biobased polymers are derived from biomass sources, which are not necessarily biodegradable. Biodegradable plastics, on the other hand, can be either made of natural or fossil sources. In 2012, the IUPAC recommended a terminology for biorelated polymers [1, 2]. Two further, special c...

Natural polymers such as collagens, elastin, and fibrinogen make up much of the body’s native extracellular matrix (ECM). This ECM provides structure and mechanical integrity to tissues, as well as communicating with the cellular components it supports to help facilitate and regulate daily cellular processes and wound healing. An ideal tissue engineering scaffold would not only replicate the st...