Adsorption of Bovine Serum and Bovine Haemoglobin onto Chitosan Film

Abstract

Chitosan is a natural polymer derived from chitin, a polysaccharide abundant in nature. The application of chitosan as a dressing material for burns presents advantages such as bacteriostatic and fungistatic activity, low toxicity and biocompatibility. In this work, the barrier properties and mechanical strength of chitosan were evaluated for subsequent use as a dressing material. The films were evaluated in terms of their protein adsorption using bovine serum albumin and bovine haemoglobin as model proteins. The chitosan films presented physical properties suitable to be in wound dressings, such as resistance, flexibility in handling, absorptive capacity and water vapour permeation ratio. The results of infrared spectroscopy indicated the qualitative adsorption of proteins on the chitosan surface film.