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You may soon be able to buy these anti-bacterial bandages made from durian skin in supermarkets and pharmacies.
Yes, that’s right, the durian skins that Singapore throws away after eating Mao Shan Wangs and D24 will give a new life, this time in a way to alleviate our wounds.
First durians heal the stomach, now they can also heal cuts and abrasions. Thank you mother for the power of nature and science.
Professor William Chen, Professor Michael Fam and Director of the Food Science and Technology Program at Nanyang University of Technology (NTU) told Vulcan Post that this research progress could soon be sold in supermarkets.
Asked if the product is still under a patent, William said, “The innovation is backed by technology disclosure and is already approved and allowed by a local food company to scale.”
“Based on the successful commercialization of our other technology innovations, we are confident that durian skin-based bandages will be another success story,” William said. “The main reasons for our successful commercialization are because our innovations are simple and cost-effective and we have worked with experienced industry partners.”
The use of food waste to produce products in bandages, when scalable, will be a tough competitor for other health competitors in the market.
Why durian of all things
To answer our question about the fair choice of using Durian skin, William shared a data to water his eyes: Singapore consumes 12 million durians a year. “The skins are largely dumped in incinerators as general waste, which adds up to a huge carbon footprint.”
To alleviate the problem of wasting so much food, William and his team considered experimenting with these large discarded shells. Durian skin can weigh about 60 to 80 percent of the fruit and is high in fiber.
“The platform’s technology is to extract cellulose from fiber-rich raw materials such as soybean waste, beer grains and durian bark,” William said.
By pressing the fruit king and not any other, other products or types of fruit, as well as discarded products can be investigated to convert them into antibacterial bandages. “As long as they have a high level of fiber,” he said.
The research was not a walk in the park for scientists from the NTU Food Science and Technology Program, who spent about three years showing the current results.
These bandages were developed in line with Singapore’s push for zero waste, and “to create a circular economy for zero waste food processing”.
William noted that the innovation – turning durian waste into an anti-bacterial bandage – is a breakthrough, as seen with the media coverage of Reuters and the World Economic Forum.
How they do it
After the Durian skin is cut and lyophilized, a process removes cellulose powder from the products.
The skin is converted into “high quality” cellulose powder by slicing, lyophilizing, ball milling and removing impurities.
The powder is then mixed with glycerol and the mixture is made into a soft hydrogel, which is then cut into strips.
The scientists then add organic molecules created from the yeast of the bakers, making the bandages deadly to the bacteria.
Hydrogels are known to help heal wounds faster, as the water content in the room keeps the wound area cool and moist. It is also known that this ingredient reduces scars.
The use of these hydrogels goes beyond bandages, as there are a variety of applications, including wound dressing as well as portable electronics.
Biodegradable, cheap and environmentally friendly
The low-cost bandage is biodegradable and non-toxic, which means it has a lower environmental footprint than conventional synthetic bandages, William said.
He added that durian bandages are natural hydrogel patches and provide a “more natural” solution for healing from wounds.
Conventional hydrogel patches on the market are made of synthetic material. Those with antimicrobial properties use metal compounds such as silver or copper ions.
These materials make conventional hydrogel patches more expensive than “durian waste” hydrogels, which are made from natural materials.
This means that manufacturers can expect a “significant reduction” in cost compared to traditional methods.
According to William, the traditional method of using enzymes costs about S $ 27,000 per kg, and the school research method costs about S $ 120 to extract the same amount of cellulose per kg.
Simply breaking it into a three-pound durian, for example, can produce 200 grams of skin powder, of which 40 grams is pure cellulose. These 40 grams are enough to make about 66 pieces of a seven-centimeter-long hydrogel patch, which will be enough to spread to 1,600 ordinary plasters.
He added that the bandages are biodegradable, and because they are organic in nature, they are expected to have a lower environmental footprint than conventional synthetic bandages.
In anti-durian people do not worry, the bandages do not smell of fruit
As for readers who are annoyed reading this article, when a passenger next to you is afraid of the smell of durian next time you wear this natural “hip” bandage on your wound, you don’t have to worry about it. .
According to William, the bandages are odorless. There is certainly no intention to include a bandage against bacteria that smell of durian, although it can be quite a snack.
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Featured Image Credit: Nanyang University of Technology
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