A stimuli-responsive and bioactive film based on blended polyvinyl alcohol and cashew gum polysaccharide

In this study, a stimuli-responsive, biodegradable and bioactive film was produced by blending cashew gum polysaccharide (CGP) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The film presented malleability and mechanical properties enabling an easy handling. Wetting the film changed the optical property from opacity to levels of transparency higher than 70% and resulted in up to 2-fold increase in its superficial area. Different swelling indexes were obtained varying the pH of solvent, which allows classifying the CGP/PVA film as pH sensitive stimuli-responsive material. The bioactivity was achieved through covalent immobilization of papain, which remained active after storage of CGP/PVA-papain film for 24h in the presence of buffer or in a dry form. These results evidenced that CGP/PVA-papain film is a very promising material for biomedical applications.