Summary:
By Express News ServiceHYDERABAD: Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad, and NIT Jalandhar have developed a process by which bone implant materials — which are usually manufactured using synthetic materials that contain toxic elements — can now be synthesised using eggshells. The researchers seek to produce bone substitute materials such as ?-tricalcium phosphate (?-TCP) using eggshells. The ancient Indian text, Sushruta Samhita, describes bone grafting method using materials having calcium, combined with the latex of banyan tree to form bone substitute. The researchers synthesised pure and thermally stable ?-TCP nanopowder from eggshells, fabricated scaffolds using these eggshell derived material and polymer and evaluated cellular response on the surface of these scaffolds. Their results show that eggshell derived bone substitute material is promising enough to replace commercially available ?-TCP produced using harmful nitrate precursors and has the capability to develop implantable biomaterial for tissue regeneration..