Development of banana (Musa balbisiana) pseudo stem fiber as a surgical bio-tool to avert post-operative wound infections

The search to develop an ideal suture material encourages us to explore novel suture biomaterials with superior characteristics to the current commercially available products. Surgical sutures play a crucial role in the development of post-operative wound infection by acting as a substrate for biofilm formation which leads to dehisced wounds. In this context, the present invention meets this need by fabricating banana (Musa balbisiana) fibre into an advanced antimicrobials releasing suture biomaterial (BSc) for the prevention of post-operative wound infection. Suture material developed from banana pseudo stem fiber was impregnated with chloramphenicol, clotrimazole and growth factors with the aid of a hydro-gel system. The fabricated suture material was found to be biocompatible towards human erythrocytes and L929 mouse fibroblast cells. BSc exhibited promising physico-chemical characteristics which were comparable to the commercially available Bombyx mori silk fibroin (BMSF) suture. BSc displayed a biphasic release pattern with sustained release of chloramphenicol for up to 140 h. Apart from being environment friendly and having a facile fabrication method, this advanced suture biomaterial showed broad spectrum in vitro antimicrobial activity against bacterial and fungal pathogens. BSc successfully impeded biofilm formation on its surface, as is evident from the confocal microscopy analysis. This contributes to superior wound healing efficacy in terms of reduced microbial burden and a subsequent decrease in the inflammatory cytokine levels. Histopathological observations further supported the pronounced healing efficacy of BSc sutured wounds. The findings of this study establish the banana pseudo stem fiber as a novel advanced suture biomaterial to prevent post-operative wound infections.