Curcumin incorporated PVA‐borax dual delivery hydrogels as potential wound dressing materials—Correlation between viscoelastic properties and curcumin release rate

ABSTRACT Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is a biocompatible polymer which can be physically crosslinked by Borax to form hydrogel. PVA‐Borax (PB) hydrogel is a promising candidate for drug delivery system. Therefore, it is necessary to find the quantitative relationship between drug release rate and network structure of PB hydrogels to predict and control drug release rate. In this work, at first step the optimum ratio of Borax: PVA was determined by studying the interactions between PVA chains and Borax molecules by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, while viscoelastic properties of prepared PB hydrogels were measured in the oscillatory shear flow field. In the following, curcumin as a hydrophobic drug was encapsulated in Pluronic F127 micelles and then these nano carriers (Cur‐P) were loaded into prepared hydrogels. The curcumin release rate in PBS solution was investigated by UV–vis spectroscopy measurements. The strong power law correlation between curcumin release rate and viscoelastic properties of PB hydrogel was confirmed. This drug delivery vehicle can be used as a competent wound dress. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135 , 46734.