Hemp waste supports cells, but orange peel does better

Hemp stalks and orange peel have found an unexpected shared address: a tissue-engineering laboratory. Researchers turned their cellulose into hydrogels, water-rich porous materials: the hemp version had around 78% porosity, while human mesenchymal stem-cell viability exceeded 80% across all formulations tested. The orange-derived material provided more favourable conditions for cell attachment and growth than the hemp and control materials. Discover Materials published the work on 27 October; these are laboratory experiments pointing to possible regenerative-medicine materials, with no established clinical effectiveness.