A Chulalongkorn University researcher has developed a local version of a patch for wounddressing made of silk protein sericin, which also promotes collagen production for the wound healing process.
Researcher Dr Pornanong Aramwit, whose project was funded by the Office of the National Research Council of Thailand, said Thailand had plenty of sericin, currently treated as waste in the silkmaking process.
Following lab rat test results, the researcher developed a more convenient form of sericin cream. Using the strain "Chul 1/1" that produces more collagen, the patch - about the size of an A4 doubledsized bandage - yielded good results on lab animals and will now be tested on wounded humans.
Currently such patches are imported and expensive; some burns patients spending up to Bt1 millionBt2 million in wound dressing materials, she said. If this patch could be commercially made, its cost would be at least 10 times lower and heal wounds faster due to the collagen, whilst most wounddressing patches nowadays only prevent infection, Pornanong said.