Department of Pharmacy, Health and Nutritional Science, University of Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata, Italy.
Molecules. 2023 Feb 23;28(5):2107. doi: 10.3390/molecules28052107.
The growing demand for drug carriers and green-technology-based tissue engineering materials has enabled the fabrication of different types of micro- and nano-assemblies. Hydrogels are a type of material that have been extensively investigated in recent decades. Their physical and chemical properties, such as hydrophilicity, resemblance to living systems, swelling ability and modifiability, make them suitable to be exploited for many pharmaceutical and bioengineering applications. This review deals with a brief account of green-manufactured hydrogels, their characteristics, preparations, importance in the field of green biomedical technology and their future perspectives. Only hydrogels based on biopolymers, and primarily on polysaccharides, are considered. Particular attention is given to the processes of extracting such biopolymers from natural sources and the various emerging problems for their processing, such as solubility. Hydrogels are catalogued according to the main biopolymer on which they are based and, for each type, the chemical reactions and the processes that enable their assembly are identified. The economic and environmental sustainability of these processes are commented on. The possibility of large-scale processing in the production of the investigated hydrogels are framed in the context of an economy aimed at waste reduction and resource recycling.
近年来，人们对药物载体和基于绿色技术的组织工程材料的需求不断增长，这使得不同类型的微纳组装体得以制备。水凝胶是近几十年来得到广泛研究的一种材料。其物理和化学性质，如亲水性、与生命系统的相似性、溶胀能力和可修饰性，使它们适合于许多药物和生物工程应用。本综述简要介绍了绿色制造的水凝胶、它们的特性、制备方法、在绿色生物医学技术领域的重要性及其未来展望。仅考虑基于生物聚合物的水凝胶，主要是多糖。特别关注从天然来源提取这些生物聚合物的过程以及它们加工过程中出现的各种新问题，如溶解度。水凝胶根据它们所基于的主要生物聚合物进行分类，并为每种类型确定了使其组装的化学反应和过程。还对这些工艺的经济和环境可持续性进行了评论。在减少废物和资源回收的目标经济框架内，研究了这些水凝胶的大规模生产的可能性。
