The Maimonides Institute of Biomedical Research (Imibic) hosted the presentation of the project this Tuesday Swallowtailwhich allowed the development of a hydrogel based on the extract from olive leaves. This product is capable of improving the treatment of difficult-to-heal ulcers by up to 50%, such as the so-called bedsores suffered by hospitalized or bedridden patients with mobility difficulties or ulcers typical of certain diabetic processes.
“This avoids the danger that a hurt prolonged over time, it becomes chronic and becomes superinfected”, explains the Imibic researcher and emeritus professor at UCO, Jose Manuel Quesada. The hydrogel is called EHO-85 and, for Quesada, “it is an important step in healing skin ulcers.” The basic research alone took ten years.
His son, José Manuel Quesada, head of the drug development company quesperexplained that it is “an amorphous hydrogel whose main characteristic is based on its antioxidant properties, which results in its superior effectiveness compared to others, even doubling the rate of healing of the injuries in the first weeks.
Business name
This product is already sold in pharmacies. Its trade name is Oleoabrax. The ingredient that makes this hydrogel special is the extract of olive leaf. In fact, the product, as Quesada Sr. explains, is a bit of a coincidence, since it comes from a project of excellence whose extract was being tested.
Researchers found that it had “a great capacity to inhibit oxidative stress.” From there, due to its ease of application, they decided to apply it to the skin injuries “because they also worsen when oxidative stress increases and become chronic,” explains the researcher.
For her part, the professor of analytical chemistry, Lola Luquérecalled the use of olive leaf as an infusion, emphasizing that at one hundred degrees Celsius, a small quantity of compounds is actually extracted. For this reason, the researchers had the components “extracted at higher temperatures, around 150 or 175 degrees, but increasing the pressure of the extractor to avoid evaporation of the liquid,” he explained.
