Development of plant extract impregnated bacterial cellulose as a green antimicrobial composite for potential biomedical applications

The current study was designed to develop cost effective antibacterial bacterial cellulose (BC) composites without following the traditional method of metal nanoparticles or drug incorporation. Briefly, the waste of tomato was employed as the main carbon source instead of commonly used commercial glucose for BC synthesis by Gluconacetobacter hansenii. Further the bioactive extract of Dracaena serrulata (D. serrulata) plant was impregnated into BC and the resulting BC- D. serrulata (BC-D) composites were investigated for their physicochemical and biological features. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) micrographs illustrated the successful impregnation of plant extracts in between the BC fibers. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis further confirmed the BC-D fabrication. Synthesized BC-D composites were able to withhold 115 % water of its dry weight. The antibacterial activities of BC-D composite were investigated against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus pathogens. A moderate level of activity was displayed at the extract level in MIC assays. BC-D composite displayed an inhibition zone of 0.7 mm and 0.5 mm against S. aureus and against E. coli, respectively. Besides moderate level of activity at extract level, BC-D composites exhibited impressive antibacterial activity where BC-D reduced the growth of S. aureus and E. coli from 70 % to 75 % in their live cell density while observed through optical density method. Moreover, this is the first study of exploring the antibacterial characteristics of D. serrulata plant extract and their composite with BC, which could be of vital significance for researchers to develop green biomedical materials. Furthermore, utilization of such wastes for bioproduct development can highly reduce the environmental risks associated with waste management and disposal.