Carbamoylethyl pullulan: QbD based synthesis, characterization and corneal wound healing potential

Corneal injuries are the major problem arises these days due to excessive use of mobile phone, TV, environment pollution, etc. Thus, a need is to evaluate materials having good corneal wound healing potential. To achieve this goal, pullulan was derivatized using carbamoylethylation and 2⁴ factorial design has been found a good approach for the optimization of synthesis process of carbamoylethyl pullulan (CMEP). The design expert software applied for this purpose suggested significance of the generated model. ATR-FTIR, NMR and XRD spectral attributes validated the structure of CMEP. Interestingly, derivatization of pullulan to CMEP has increased its ΔH from 171.552 J/g to 203.5 J/g and decreased the endothermic transition from 323.44 °C to 248.67 °C. Further, rheological behavior suggested enhanced viscosity after carbamoylethylation indicating increase in H-bonding that further participate in the enhancement of corneal adhesive strength. The CMEP possessed high corneal wound healing property that was associated with its high corneal adhesive strength and oxygen neutralizing capacity. Thus, the findings suggested overwhelming influence of CMEP as a corneal wound healing agent.