Page 41 - Drug Discovery and Development: Prospects and Challenges

Drug Discovery and Development: Prospects and Challenges / 31
formation of hydrogels with extremely high swelling capacity (Laine et
al., 2004). These properties make PEG practically perfect to be used as
the basis of in vivo hydrogel (Roberts et al., 2002).
The preparation of hydrogels usually involves the crosslinking
of polymer chains together to form a sheet or a film. To date, various
methods have been developed to prepare hydrogels, include chemical,
radiation, and freeze-thaw crosslinking (Yang et al., 2004). The freezing
and thawing crosslinking method avoids the toxicity and the leaching
problems with chemical crosslinking and producing a hydrogel with
better mechanical strength compared to the chemical and irradiative
techniques. Given that traditional herbal treatments have gained the focus
of scientific research in the last decade due to their safety feature and
economically viable technique of treating wounds and burns, hence, the
present study focused on developing a hydrogel formulation with wound
healing action containing the phytochemicals of interest. Among various
interesting plants is the C. asiatica Linn (gotu kola) or Asian pennywort.

Brothers and sisters,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Development of Pegaga Research:
From Laboratory to Serum X

Hydrogel Formulation using C. asiatica

Three principal ingredients are found in C. asiatica comprising
asiaticoside, asiatic acid, and madecassic acid. All three components have
been identified to be clinically effective in the treatment of abnormal
scar formation, systemic scleroderma, and keloids (Hong et al., 2005).
Specifically, the asiaticoside exhibits a significant wound healing
activity (Shukla et al., 1999). It was reported that C. asiatica extracts
shortened the wound healing time significantly by acting more precisely
on the immediate process of healing (Poizot & Dumez, 1978). The most
valuable effect of the plant appears to be the healing of the scar through
the production of type 1 collagen and decreasing the inflammatory
response and myofibroblast production (Widgerow et al., 2000).