The Diffusion of Methionine in Water Hyacinth

(Eichhornia crassipes) hydrogel in improving

tissue-repair
Gabrielle Nicole S. Corteza* Angelikuz Blue S. Cezar* Von Zachary Benedict B. Fadri* Angelo
Lance O. Seraspi* David Joseph O. Velasco
Student, Manila Science High School, Taft Ave. cor. Padre Faura St. Ermita, Manila,
Philippines
Email: gabrielle_nicole@ymail.com

Water Hyacinth are known both for their ability to filter and invade
waterways by reproducing into huge areas of their species. Methionine, present in
water hyacinths was found to be in high levels and is responsible for repairing
broken tissue. The objective is to improve tissue repairing using a natural hydrogel
dressing diffused with Methionine both from the water hyacinth. These hydrogel
bandages will be tested by how fast it can absorb water in a petri dish.

Keywords: Natural hydrogels, Water Hyacinth, tissue-repair, Methionine

I. INTRODUCTION source of livelihood. Examples are bags,

Water hyacinths (Eichhornia
crassipes) or most commonly known as Water
lilies in the Philippines are one of the most
abundant weeds found in most water forms.
They can purify waterways but these plants
continue to invade and reproduce, and have
been one of the sources of flooding and etc.
The aquatic weed, Water hyacinth, is
ranked among the top ten weeds worldwide
and is one of the most successful colonizers in
the plant kingdom (Kathiresan, 2014)
This has been a problem every year and
people have innovated to use these plants as a
clothes, fans and etc. by drying the stems of
water lilies and weaving it all together to form
such products.
Hydrogels are defined as a three-
dimensional polymer structures that can be
formed from natural and synthetic polymers
and are able to retain large amounts of water.
(Saputra, et. al, 2015)
These hydrogels have been the new trend in
agriculture as seedlings tend to need less
water as these absorb the water and fertilizer
that drift off from the soil so the near seedling
can act of it as a nutrient reserve (Abobatta,
2018)
They can also be found on baby’s diapers,
napkins, and contact lenses. But these are
synthetic hydrogel products and has a
possibility of high toxicity level and cannot
decompose easily.
Superabsorbent polymers (SAP) such as
hydrogels are materials which can absorb and
retain a large amount of water or aqueous
solutions (Noordergraaf, et. al., 2013) These
materials consists of crosslinked hydrophilic
polymer chains forming a 3-dimensional
network structure (Chambers, 2010; Masuda,
et.al, 1978)
There are already existing hydrogel products
used for bandages to control the moisture
level and prevent bacterial growth. These
natural and synthetic gel-like materials,
films/membranes have featured heavily in the
development of biomaterials for wound
healing and other tissue-engineering purposes
as these Nanofibrous membranes are highly
soft materials with high surface-to-volume
ratios, and therefore can serve as excellent
carriers for therapeutic agents or accelerate
wound healing (Sezer and Cevher, 2011)
As the abundance of water hyacinth within
the researcher’s area, the problems its arise
and the trend of synthetic hydrogels.
An idea was created to use Water hyacinth as
a hydrogel along with its leaf protein,
Methionine to act as a tissue-repair bandage.
Methionine, a leaf protein found in Water
Hyacinth is an amino acid responsible for
repairing broken tissue (Mesallam, et. al,
1984)
Methionine capsules was used instead as the
amount of Methionine in the water hyacinth
will be altered as the plant will undergo
several processes to synthesize the hydrogel.
II. METHODOLOGY
The method that was used on synthesizing the
hydrogel from water hyacinth was derived
with the help of Adamson University
Technology Research and Development
Center and the study “Synthesis and
Characterization of hydrogel from cellulose
derivatives of water hyacinth (Eichhornia
crassipes) through chemical cross-linking
method by using citric acid)” as there are
only limited studies that conducted hydrogel
production from plants.
II. I. Sample and materials collection
Water hyacinth was collected in Laguna bay
near Sucat. For isolating the water hyacinth
cellulose NaClO2, NaOH, and distilled water
was needed. For the synthesis of
carboxymethyl cellulose, Sodium
monochloroacetate and NaOH. And lastly,
Citric acid as a cross linking agent.
II.II.I Isolation of Water Hyacinth
Cellulose
The water hyacinth was dried for 3 weeks and
was turned into powder. It was heated using
the Soxhlet apparatus and solvent of toluene
and ethanol with the volume ratio of 2:1 for
dewaxing. The lignin content was removed by
using 1wt% solution of NaClO2 and placed in
a waterbath at 80°C for 3 hours. After that,
the bleached
cellulose was be treated using a solution of
17.5% NaOH to remove the hemicellulose
content and stand for 3 hours at room
temperature. Washing is conducted by using
distilled water and CH3COOH for neutralizing
the cellulose. Drying process was carried out
in an oven at 60°C for 2-3 hours.
II.II.II Synthesis of Carboxymethyl
Cellulose (CMC)
The alkalization process was conducted by
mixing 10 grams of cellulose with the
composition of the reaction medium isobutyl-
isopropyl alcohol at 2:8 in 3 neck flask with weighed to approximately 25 g (m1) was
stirrer on for 10 minutes, then add 40mL of immersed in 100mL of distilled water at room
5% NaOH solution. The process lasted for temperature, and allowed to reach the
maximum swelling. The water absorption
approximately 1 and a half hour in room
capacity was calculated
temperature. After that, the Sodium
Monochloroacetic was added as much as 13 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
grams for 3.5 hours at 55°C. The variations
The synthesized hydrogel from the derivatives
are the composition of the mixture of reaction
of Eichhornia crassipes was found suitable to
medium isobutyl-isopropyl alcohol at 5:5 and called as an example of Superabsorbent
8:2. The CMC will be neutralized with polymers (SAP) bandage as it has a maximum
CH3COOH and purified by rinsing 96% weight of 31.5g and a minimum weight of
ethanol four times to remove undesirable by- 22.5 g excluding 1mL of diluted Methionine
products. The obtained cellulose derivative capsule that was absorbed by the hydrogel
(See Table 1) and garnered a difference of
was dried at 60°C in the oven.
8.8g between the minimum and maximum wt.
of absorption.
II.II.III Synthesis of Hydrogel
The process begun by mixing 3%-w CMC in Table 1: Average Analyte/Parameter of
Water absorption capacity (WAC)
100mL of distilled water. After a homogenous
measurement test
mixture is obtained and translucent, the citric
acid was added as much as 10% of the weight Result (g)
of the polymer CMC that were used. This Minimum wt. of 22.5
final solution was used to make a 10-mm water absorbed per
thick sample. A reflux technique was used to gram
enhance the substance’s purity and heighten Maximum wt. of 31.3
the effectiveness of the extraction of water absorbed per
gram
unneeded volatile components.
Table 2: Comparison of the synthesized
II.III Diffusion of Methionine in water hydrogel to store bought hydrogel
hyacinth hydrogel Wt. of water absorbed per
gram
st
As the hydrogel’s main role is to absorb water 1 trial 2nd trial
Baby Diaper 65.79 63.90
and nutrients. 500 mg of Methionine
Synthesized 29.89 34.2
supplement will be used to save up materials hydrogel
in extracting it from the water hyacinth. The
tablet will mixed into 10mL of distilled water Table 3: Analysis of Variance Results
until dissolved. The solution will then be
F-statistic value= 11.6929
added to the hydrogel. P-value=0.02679
Data Summary
II.IV. Water absorption capacity (WAC) N Mean Std. Std.
measurement test Dev Error
Min. wt. 3 22.54 3.6104 2.0845
To determine the absorption capacity absorbed
of the synthesized hydrogel, a gravimetric per
method was applied. Samples are then gram
Max wt. 3 31.3333 2.6083 1.5059 synthesized hydrogel to a hydrogel sheet and
absorbed to test it on actual tissue.
per
gram

Table 4: ANOVA Summary Results

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Principles and Practice
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