Bhubaneswar, March 14: A SOA University researcher has developed a ‘chitosan-turmeric patch’ which can be used to coagulate blood flow in accident victims and prevent road accident deaths.
Dr. Subhasmita Swain, who had lost a cousin to excessive bleeding following a road accident two years ago in this city, won the Odisha Youth Innovation Award, instituted by the state government, for her work that is seen to have great possibilities in health care. She received the award from the chief minister Mr. Naveen Patnaik recently.
Dr. Swain did her research at the Centre of Excellence for Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (CETMS), run by the SOA University, after joining as a Ph.D scholar in 2012. She developed the patch over an eight-month period while working in the Biomaterials and Tissue Generation Lab of CETMS.
“Chitosan is an extract from prawns and crabs which is natural, tough, cationic, biodegradable and biocompatible polymer suitable for various applications in pharmaceutical industry,” she explained.
As Chitosan is known to have properties to enhance coagulation, the idea came as to how it could be put to use to stop bleeding, Dr. Swain said.
The chitosan extract was mixed with pure turmeric powder, having natural antiseptic, antibacterial and antibiotic properties, processed and then freeze dried to obtain a porous patch which was found to be working well to stop bleeding, she said.
“This patch is designed to stop external bleeding in human beings caused due to injury in two minutes,” she said while referring to a WHO report which has put injury as the third leading cause of death in India by 2020.
Dr. Swain, who did her Ph.D research in biomaterial science from SOA University, said she received much encouragement and support from her supervisor Dr. Tapash Ranjan Routray, Assistant Professor, and the CETMS Director, Prof. Minaketan Parida.
Dr. Swain is the second researcher from the CETMS to win the Youth Innovation Award in two years. Another researcher from the center, Mr. Satish Kumar Samal, had won the award in 2016 for developing an innovative idea to help farmers.
