If you have ever had surgery, you know first hand how important it is to prevent the wound from becoming infected. There are special conductive sutures that detect changes in wound status by means of electrical signal and transmit the information to a computer or smartphone. As wonderful as it sounds, it’s a first-world solution that’s far too expensive for places that need it most – developing countries. And surgical wounds in developing countries are about four times more likely to become infected than in the US.
Beets and other fruits and vegetables such as blackberries, plums and blueberries are a natural indicator of pH. They have a compound called anthocyanin which gives both their pigment and this cool property. Beets are perfect because they change color at a pH of nine – the same pH level of infected human skin, which is usually around five.
[Dasia] experimented with different types of suture to see which sugars would absorb the beets in the first place. She is sitting on a cotton-polyester blend that is braided. While it probably helps absorb the beet juice, it will also give bacteria in different places to hide. Another problem is that many surgeries also cut muscle, and by the time a deeper infection would appear on the sutures, it would be pretty late in the game. But if these color-changing sutures can be cost-effective, safe for the skin and naturally keep wounds together, this solution is better than nothing and definitely worth producing. You can see [Dasia] talk about her project in the video below.
Want to know more about natural pH indicators? Of course you do.