Calophyllum inophyllum Oil: Encapsulated PCL/POX Electrospun Membrane for Antibacterial Wound Dressing Applications

Natural-derived wound dressing products with on-demand antibacterial properties have recently captured accentuated attention in the application field of dermal wound treatment. Herein, an affordable approach to the fabrication of electrospun membranes employing polycaprolactone (PCL), Poloxamer 407 (POX), and Calophyllum inophyllum oil (CIO) for antibacterial dressings is demonstrated. Briefly, the influence of POX and CIO concentration on the obtained membranes is evaluated to determine the optimal parameters for dressing applications. The surface morphology, chemical compositions, surface wettability, moisture permeability, mechanical properties, and antibacterial activity of the obtained membranes are evaluated. The results show that the PCL_POX_CIO membranes exhibit the enlargement of fiber diameter, indicating a causal correlation between the PCL and CIO concentration. In addition, POX concentration is discovered to have a positive impact on water absorption capacity with recorded WCA of 0 degrees, however, reduces mechanical strength due to bead formations. Specifically, when the CIO content reached 15 v/v%, the recorded inhibition zone was measured to be 15.7 +/- 1.34 (mm). Furthermore, our study underscores the significant antibacterial activity of CIO in agar-diffusion tests against Staphylococcus aureus strains. Despite several limitations, the successful fabrication of the PCL_POX_CIO membranes open an economically sustainable approach for the scalable fabrication of antibacterial wound dressing.