Scientists at Nanyang Technological College (NTU) in Singapore are tackling meals waste by turning discarded durian husks into antibacterial gel bandages.
The method extracts cellulose powder from the fruit’s husks after they’re sliced and freeze-dried, then mixes it with glycerol. This combination turns into mushy hydrogel, which is then minimize into bandage strips.
“In Singapore, we eat about 12 million durians a 12 months, so moreover the flesh, we won’t do a lot in regards to the husk and the seeds and this trigger environmental air pollution,” stated Professor William Chen, director of the meals science and know-how program at NTU. The fruit’s husks, which make up greater than half of the composition of durians, are often discarded and incinerated, contributing to environmental waste.
Chen added that the know-how also can flip different meals waste, similar to soy beans and spent grains, into hydrogel, serving to restrict the nation’s meals waste.
In comparison with standard bandages, the organo-hydrogel bandages are additionally in a position to hold wound areas cooler and moist, which may also help speed up therapeutic.
The researchers say utilizing waste supplies and yeast for the antimicrobial bandages is less expensive than the manufacturing of standard bandages, whose antimicrobial properties come from costlier metallic compounds like silver or copper ions.
A durian wholeseller, Tan Eng Chuan, stated he goes via a minimum of 30 crates of durians a day throughout durian season – as a lot as 1,800 kg. Having the ability to use the elements of the fruit which can be ordinarily discarded, he stated, was an innovation that may make having fun with it “extra sustainable.”
(Reporting by Lee Ying Shan and Travis Teo. Modifying by Gerry Doyle)
