Acemannan-based films: an improved approach envisioning biomedical applications

In the last years, a renewed interest in natural compounds from medicinal plants uses arose due to their intrinsic bioactive properties. Acemannan (ACE), aloe vera leaves the main polysaccharide, is cytocompatible, wound healing inducer, antibacterial and immunomodulator. Thus, its association with natural polymers as chitosan (CHT) and alginate (ALG) can result in strong synergistic effects, due to the interactions established between the polymers leading to mixed junction zones formation. In this work, ACE-based films were prepared through the combination of ACE with CHT or ALG. Films were characterized to evaluate their physical features and chemical composition. The findings revealed that the presence of calcium ions into ACE composition induced an effective gelation with ALG and a polymeric arrangement with CHT. Moreover, an increase of ACE ratio in ALG/ACE lead to more resistant and stable structures. The findings obtained suggest that ACE-based films are good candidates to be used as bioactive platforms. (paper)