Biocompatible Quince Seed Mucilage Hydrogel: A Versatile Platform for Efficient Drug Delivery of Ceftriaxone with Enhanced Adsorption Properties

The objective of this study was to explore the applicability of biocompatible quince seed mucilage hydrogel as a promising material for drug delivery systems. In this investigation, the hydrogel was synthesized through the graft copolymerization of acrylic acid and allyl polyvinyl alcohol onto quince seed mucilage in an aqueous solution under an argon atmosphere. Characterization of the synthesized hydrogel was performed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Subsequently, the developed hydrogel served as a carrier for ceftriaxone antibiotic release in both distilled water and a buffer solution with a pH of 7.4. The results demonstrated an impressive encapsulation efficiency of 96.1% for ceftriaxone within the hydrogel matrix. Additionally, the adsorption properties of ceftriaxone onto the proposed hydrogel structures (I, II, and III) were theoretically investigated in the aqueous phase using Monte Carlo adsorption locator calculations in Materials Studio2017. Our findings revealed strong adsorption on structure (III) compared to structures (I and II), with respective theoretical energies of -2.836 kcal/mol, -2.840 kcal/mol, and -2.127 kcal/mol. Therefore, the proposed hydrogel structure (III) emerges as a promising candidate for drug delivery applications, emphasizing its potential as an efficient carrier system.