A Silver Nanoparticle‐Embedded Tamarind Kernel Gum/Poly (Sodium Acrylate) Nanocomposite for Sustainable Release of Doxycycline

Abstract

The current work describes an eco‐friendly novel synthesis of silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs)/Tamarind kernel gum (TKG)/Poly (sodium acrylate) (PSA) nanocomposite without the use of any toxic materials. It is a one‐step route synthesis of silver nanocomposite hydrogel in which TKG and PSA are cross‐linked using methylene bisacrylamide (MBA) cross‐linker. The developed hydrogels were characterized using XRD, FTIR, UV‐visible, FE‐SEM, and TEM techniques. Doxycycline (dox) was chosen as a model drug for release studies using TKG/PSA and Ag/TKG/PSA nanocomposite. The observation is that Ag NP/TKG/PSA nanocomposite showed a pH‐dependent swelling which is higher at pH 7.4 than at pH 1.2. Similarly, the cumulative drug release percentage (CDR %) using silver nanocomposite is higher at pH 7.4 than at pH 1.2. Also, the presence of Ag NPs decreased the swelling ratio (SR) of TKG/PSA hydrogel, which controls the rate of release of the dox drug. In addition, the dox release kinetics were studied using the Korsmeyer‐Peppas and Higuchi model. It has been found that drug release data was fitted in the Korsmeyer‐Peppas model with a higher value of regression coefficient (R2). Thus, Ag/TKG/PSA nanocomposite showed satisfactory results for sustainable release of doxycycline drug.