Tuesday, May 22, 2012

TECH HEALTH SPECIAL..Starch fibres could lead to ouch-less bandages


Starch fibres could lead to ouch-less bandages

    A process that spins starch into fine strands could take the sting out of removing bandages, as well as produce less expensive and more environmentally-friendly toilet paper, napkins and other products, according to Penn State food scientists.
    “There are many applications for starch fibres,” said Lingyan Kong, graduate student, food science, “Starch is the most abundant and also the least expensive of natural polymers.”
    Kong, who worked with Greg Ziegler, professor of food science, used a solvent to dissolve the starch into a fluid that can then be spun into long strands, or fibres. These fibres can be combined and formed into paper-like mats, tissues and other types of paper products.
    Once the process is scaled to industrial size, companies could make bandages and other medical dressings using starch fibres. Unlike bandages that are currently on the market that must be – often painfully – removed, starch bandages would degrade into glucose, a substance the body safely absorbs. “Starch is easily biodegradable, so bandages made from it would, over time, be absorbed by the body,” said Kong. “So, you wouldn’t have to remove them.”
    Starch is a polymer made of amylose and amylopectin. Polymers are large molecules that are composed of chains of smaller, repeating molecules. Starches, typically found in corn, potatoes and other plants.
    Starch does not completely dissolve in water but instead becomes a gel – or, starch paste – that is too thick to make fibres. To solve the problem, the researchers added a solvent to help the solution dissolve the starch, but not destroy its molecular structure, Kong said. 
 MM120504

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