Preparation of hydrogel from raw stingless bee honey / Amirul Aiman Mohd Abd Fazdil

Chitosan/PVA hydrogel layers are used in the preparation of a hydrogel containing raw stingless bee honey for potential use as wound dressing materials. The effects of stingless bee honey addition on the tensile strength, gel fraction, and porosity of the samples were studied. The samples' physicochemical properties were compared using pH, refractive index, moisture content and hygroscopicity. The hydrogel with different of raw stingless bee honey volume (3g, 6g, 9g) with different concentrations of distilled water (10%, 15%, 20% w/v) were used resulting in three samples of different value of tensile strength, gel fraction and porosity. The addition of raw stingless bee honey increased the porosity and cell proliferation of the chitosan/PVA films. It also decreased the gel fraction but had no effect on the tensile strength. Because of hydrogen bonding interactions with the PVA and chitosan chains, the presence of raw honey reduced the tensile strength of the hydrogels. The presence of raw stingless bee honey, on the other hand, significantly increased the biocompatibility of the hydrogels.