NTU scientists are turning durian husks into bandages, soon to hit stores

You would possibly quickly be capable of purchase these antibacterial bandages made out of durian husks at supermarkets and pharmacies.

Sure that’s proper, the durian husks Singaporeans throw away after feasting on their Mao Shan Wangs and D24s might be given a brand new lease of life – this time within the type of easing our wounds.

First durians heal our stomachs, now they will additionally heal our cuts and scrapes. Thanks mom nature and the ability of science.

Professor William Chen, the Michael Fam professor and director of the Nanyang Technological College’s (NTU) Meals Science and Expertise Programme advised Vulcan Put up that this analysis breakthrough would possibly doubtlessly be bought in supermarkets quickly.

When requested if the product is below a patent but, William mentioned: “The innovation is protected by expertise disclosure and it’s already accepted and being licensed out to an area meals firm to scale up.”

“Primarily based on profitable commercialisation of our different tech improvements, we’re assured that durian husks primarily based bandages could be one other profitable story,” mentioned William. “The primary causes for our profitable commercialisation are that our improvements are easy and value efficient and likewise as a result of we’ve got been working with skilled business companions.”

Utilizing meals waste to create merchandise into bandages, when scalable, can be set to be a tricky contender to different healthcare rivals available in the market.

Why durians of all issues

To reply our query on why the “random” alternative of utilizing durian husks, William shared a watch watering truth: that Singapore consumes 12 million durians a yr. “The husks are largely disposed of as normal waste in incinerators, this provides to an enormous quantity of carbon footprint.”

To mitigate the problem of a lot meals waste, William and his staff checked out experimenting on these cumbersome discarded shells. Durian husks can account for about 60 to 80 per cent of the fruit’s weight and are excessive in fibre.

“The platform expertise extracts cellulose from fibre wealthy uncooked supplies, like soybean residues, brewer’s spent grain, and durian husks,” William mentioned.

When pressed on why the king of fruits and never any others, he mulled that different kinds of merchandise or fruits, in addition to discarded merchandise will also be researched to transform into antibacterial bandages. “So long as they’ve a excessive degree of fibre,” he mentioned.

The analysis was not a stroll within the park for the scientists at NTU Meals Science and Expertise Programme, having spent about three years earlier than with the ability to present the present outcomes. 

These bandages had been developed according to Singapore’s push in direction of making a “zero-waste meals processing round economic system”.

William famous that the innovation – to show durian waste into antibacterial bandages – is a breakthrough, as seen with worldwide media protection by the likes of Reuters and the World Financial Discussion board.

How do they do it

After the durian husks are sliced and freeze-dried, a course of extracts cellulose powder from the merchandise. 

The husks are transformed into “high-quality” cellulose powder by slicing, freeze-drying, ball-milling, and the removing of impurities.

The powder is then combined with glycerol and the combination turns into tender hydrogel, which is then minimize into bandage strips.

The scientists subsequently add natural molecules produced from baker’s yeast, making the bandages lethal to micro organism.

Hydrogel is understood to assist wounds heal quicker because the water content material within the gel retains the wound space cool and moist. This part can be identified to scale back scarring.

The use case for these hydrogels transcend simply bandages, as there are numerous functions, together with for wound dressing and even wearable electronics.

Biodegradable, low-cost, and eco-friendly

The low-cost bandage is each biodegradable and non-toxic, which suggests it has a smaller environmental footprint than typical artificial bandages, William mentioned. Additionally they present a extra “pure” answer to therapeutic from wounds.

Typical hydrogel patches available on the market are product of artificial supplies. These with antimicrobial properties use metallic compounds like silver or copper ions.

These supplies make typical hydrogel patches extra pricey than the “durian waste” hydrogels, that are made out of pure supplies.

Because of this producers can anticipate a “important discount” in price in comparison with conventional strategies.

In keeping with William, the standard methodology of utilizing enzymes prices about S$27,000 per kilogram, whereas the varsity’s analysis methodology prices about S$120 per kilogram to extract the identical quantity of cellulose.

To interrupt it down merely, a 3 kilogram durian for instance, can create 200 grams of husk powder, of which 40 grams are pure cellulose. This 40 grams are sufficient to make round 66 items of seven cm by seven cm hydrogel patches, which might be sufficient materials to unfold over 1,600 common plasters.

He added that the bandages are biodegradable, and as they’re natural in nature, they’re anticipated to have a smaller environmental footprint than typical artificial bandages.

Anti-durian individuals fret not, the bandages don’t scent just like the fruit

As for readers who’ve been going all cringy studying this text due to the concern of the scent of durians subsequent time when a commuter subsequent to you is carrying this “hip” pure bandage on his wound, you don’t have to fret about that.

In keeping with William, the bandages are odorless. There are actually no plans to introduce antibacterial bandages that include the scent of durians, though which may be fairly a snack.

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Featured Picture Credit score: Nanyang Technological College