DEVELOPMENT OF GEL WITH CURCUMIN SILVER NANOPARTICLES AND EVALUATION OF ITS IN-VIVO WOUND HEALING AND ANTIMICROBIAL CAPABILITIES

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are metallic nanoparticles that play an important role in nanomedicine as antimicrobial agents, wound management, anti-diabetic, burn care, cancer diagnosis and therapy, etc. Natural polyphenol curcumin, which is derived from turmeric, is well-known for its ability to heal wounds and has been shown to have antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Although curcumin is used more widely, its hydrophobic nature restricts its effectiveness. To increase its activity, curcumin can be combined with AgNPs with the help of a precursor. In the current work, curcumin-AgNP (CUR-AgNP) was made chemically with sodium citrate acting as a reducing agent and silver nitrate serving as a precursor. The prepared AgNP was characterized for particle size, PDI, zeta potential, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD). Carbopol was used to convert the CUR-AgNP into a gel, which was then characterized in terms of pH, gel strength, viscosity, and spreadability. The capacity of the targeted gel formulation to heal wounds in-vivo was examined in Albino Wistar rats. The results showed that the prepared gel possessed good physicochemical properties with good stability. Using an excision wound model, the in-vivo healing activity was shown to be 96.96%, while the marketed silver nitrate gel (0.2% w/w) demonstrated 95.41% healing. The above results confirmed the effectiveness and enhanced topical delivery of the prepared formulation which could be better than the marketed preparation.