Did you know that the silk material can be used to heal wounds, amputations and help treat burn victims? A Bengaluru-based venture, Fibroheal Woundcare, has specially developed bandages derived from silk protein.

“For patients, this material is affordable, accessible and although unique, it reduces the time it takes to treat wounds and offers improved quality of healing,” says the founder, Vivek Mishra.

“It takes about 18-21 days to heal with traditional wound dressing while it takes about only 8-10 days to heal with our ‘D Fibroheal’ dressing,” he adds.

Also, ease of application and removal without damaging the newly-developed cell is what allows D Fibroheal to stand out, says Vivek.

These bandages are notable because they use broken cocoons left behind by the fully grown moth or butterfly, which the textile industry has no use for.

He further points out that a large amount of silk is wasted in the value chain of the textile sector, which is from reeling to weaving in the textile sector. This can be better utilised to develop products for biomedical use.

The D Fibroheal isolates two proteins — fibroin and sericin — to develop a biomedical bandage. Fibroin is the primary ingredient and sericin is the “adhesive element” that binds the fibroin strands.

So far, more than 150 hospitals across India, including AIIMS-Delhi, procure and use D Fibroheal bandages to treat different types of acute, chronic, and post-operative wounds.

Currently, D Fibroheal is working with the Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) to develop larger biomedical bandages to heal massive injuries such as bullet wounds.

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