Outbreak of surgical infections and bacterial resistance against synthetic antibiotic has prompted research towards development of antibacterial medical devices. For that purpose, absorbable surgical sutures were impregnated with natural compound thymol using an environmentally friendly medium. The supercritical solvent impregnation process was performed at 35 °C and 10 MPa during 1, 2, 3 and 6 h, resulting in thymol loadings of 3.9–5.6%. All tested samples expressed antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus. Release tests in PBS at 37 °C showed that impregnated material released loaded thymol in a gradual manner. While sutures impregnated during 6 h released complete amount of loaded thymol during 6 days, shorter impregnation process resulted in sutures that retained significant thymol amounts (~ 20–40%) after 10 days of release test. The effect of proposed process on final material properties and its application were explained in detail using characterization techniques SEM, FTIR, DSC and DMA.

手术感染的爆发和细菌对合成抗生素的耐药性促使研究开发抗菌医疗器械。为此，可吸收的手术缝合线使用环境友好的介质用天然复合百里酚浸渍。超临界溶剂浸渍过程在 35 °C 和 10 MPa 下进行 1、2、3 和 6 小时，导致百里酚负载量为 3.9-5.6%。所有测试样品都表达了对大肠杆菌和金黄色葡萄球菌的抗菌活性。在 PBS 中 37 °C 的释放测试表明，浸渍材料逐渐释放负载的百里酚。虽然在 6 小时内浸渍的缝合线在 6 天内释放了全部负载的百里酚，但较短的浸渍过程导致缝合线在释放测试 10 天后保留了显着的百里酚量（~20-40%）。使用表征技术 SEM、FTIR、DSC 和 DMA 详细解释了所提出的工艺对最终材料性能的影响及其应用。