Physicochemical Characteristics and Antibacterial Activities of Freeze-Thawed Polyvinyl Alcohol/Andrographolide Hydrogels

[Image: see text] Andrographolide (AG) is one of the compounds in Andrographis paniculata, which has a high antibacterial activity. This paper reports the freeze–thaw method’s use to synthesize polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogels loaded with AG and its characterization. From the morphological examination, the porosity of the PVA/AG hydrogel was found to increase with the increasing AG concentration. The swelling degree test revealed that the hydrogels’ maximum swelling degrees were generally greater than 100%. The composite hydrogel with the highest fraction of andrographolide (PAG-4) showed greater weight loss than the hydrogel without AG (PAG-0). The molecular interaction between PVA and AG resulted in the narrowing of the band attributed to the O–H and C=O stretching bonds and the emergence of an amorphous domain in the composite hydrogels. The loading of AG disrupted the formation of hydroxyl groups in PVA and interrupted the cross-linking between PVA chains, which lead to the decrease of the compression strength and the crystallinity increased with increasing AG. The antibacterial activity of the composite hydrogel increased with increasing AG. The PAG-4 hydrogel had the highest antibacterial activity of 37.9 ± 4.6(b) %. Therefore, the PVA/AG hydrogel has the potential to be used as an antibacterial device.