A group of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) students have used chicken feet waste as a gel to cure bone fractures.
The innovation was developed by Yudith Violetta P (Veterinary Medicine), Vigha Ilmanafi A (Pharmacy) and Josi Aldo Pramono (Mechanical Engineering). They innovated bone graft biomaterial in the form of nano-BCP-collagen gel from chicken feet waste called BETAGRAFT.
Yudith explained they developed the product following the increasing number of bone fracture cases in Indonesia each year. Data from the Indonesian Hospital Information System (2010) noted that the number of fracture incidences reached over 43,000. Bone fractures will damage the bone tissue and the surrounding soft tissues and it takes a long time to heal.
She said that in cases of complete bone fractures where the fractures cannot be joined back together, implants as immobilizers such as those generally available in the market are no longer effective. In such cases, a more effective bone graft material is needed to replace the damaged bone tissues as a whole and stimulate new tissue formation.
“This has encouraged us to innovate the nano-BCP-collagen gel derived from biological waste, namely chicken feet which are very abundant in Indonesia,” said she on Monday (15/7).
Yudith said BETAGRAFT in a gel form compared to conventional implant is more flexible because it can reach all fragments of the broken bones. The formulation contains BCP material in the form of nanocrystalline and it has a size similar to normal bone tissue (nanometrically natural) so it is absorbed faster than conventional biomaterials.
Vighna added that they process chicken claws which are found in chicken slaughterhouses and formulated in a gel that is easy to apply. Furthermore, tested on experimental animals, namely Wistar rats aged 2 months.
Vighna added they formulate the chicken feet taken from slaughter houses into a gel for easy application. Later, they tested the gel on 2 months old wistar rats.
“Seen from the callus area and histopathology as healing parameters, BETAGRAFT is proven to accelerate fracture healing compared to conventional bone graft,” she said.
