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Dressings to use the magic of mushrooms

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor

HEALING could be speeded up by using plasters and bandages that contain fungus.

A team from the British Textile Technology Group in Manchester and the University of Wales, Cardiff, hopes to mass produce and freeze-dry filaments of fungus for dressings, according to the latest issue of the journal BioTechnology.

The team hopes to exploit an ingredient of fungi called chitin, which is the second most abundant polymer in nature after cellulose.

Chitin's healing properties have been appreciated for hundreds of years. The Koreans and Mexicans used fungi, while the North American Indians treated wounds with powdered crustacean shells, another source of chitin.

Supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, Dr Paul Hamlyn of the textile group has 
found a way to grow particular fungi in bulk and convert it into a paper-type material that could be used as the basis of a dressing.

"If properly formulated, chitin helps to keep the wound moist, which can increase the rate of healing by up to two fold," said Dr Richard Schmidt of the University of Wales.