Gum Tragacanth (GT): A Versatile Biocompatible Material beyond Borders.

The use of naturally occurring materials in biomedicine has been increasingly attracting the researchers' interest and, in this regard, gum tragacanth (GT) is recently showing great promise as a therapeutic substance in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. As a polysaccharide, GT can be easily extracted from the stems and branches of various species of Astragalus. This anionic polymer is known to be a biodegradable, non-allergenic, non-toxic, and non-carcinogenic material. The stability against microbial, heat and acid degradation has made GT an attractive material not only in industrial settings (e.g., food packaging) but also in biomedical approaches (e.g., drug delivery). Over time, GT has been shown to be a useful reagent in the formation and stabilization of metal nanoparticles in the context of green chemistry. With the advent of tissue engineering, GT has also been utilized for the fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds applied for both hard and soft tissue healing strategies. However, more research is needed for defining GT applicability in the future of biomedical engineering. On this object, the present review aims to provide a state-of-the-art overview of GT in biomedicine and tries to open new horizons in the field based on its inherent characteristics.

Novel three-dimensional cellulose produced from trunk of Astragalus gummifer (Fabaceae) tested for protein adsorption performance.

This is the first study to produce three-dimensional (3D) cellulose from any plant up to now. This 3D cellulose was produced from Astragalus gummifer(Fabaceae) trunk by using a modified method in which original the shape of cellulose was kept as natural. This novel 3D cellulose was characterized by SEM, TGA, FT-IR, XRD and elemental analysis to evidence the purity and to compare it with commercially available cellulose from cotton. Results from these characterizations were found convincing because almost the same physicochemical properties were observed for both newly obtained 3D cellulose and commercial one. Both fibers and pores on the surface of 3D cellulose were observed. Thanks to its diversified surface morphology, this novel 3D cellulose was tested for its protein adsorption performance and the results were compared with commercial cellulose as follows: maximum adsorption capacity at pH 8.0 was recorded as 59.2 mg/g for 3D cellulose while 29.6 mg/g for commercial cellulose. According to this result, it is clear to say that this sorbent has high affinity for lysozyme. Also this 3D cellulose could be useful for the other areas of separation science.