Dear Muhammed, yes PLA is a biodegradable polymer and it degrades under bio-stimuli sources. It is for this feature and others it is widely used as drug delivery carrier. My Regards
Williams in 1981 and Tsuji and Miyauchi in 2001 had the same question ” is PLA is biodegradable” . They have written white papers around the subject and are featured in the book Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine. In the book and discussed at the conference of the European Society for Biomaterials PLA is controlled by hydrolysis and the hydrolysis is independent of all biological agents.
So while many people believe PLA to be biodegradable, it simply is not, PLA is degradable and should be considered as such, in the Biomaterials Science book, they actually go on to say that the situation where Proteinase K hydrolyze PLA is so rare it is not worth discussing further. ( http://www.biosphereplastic.com/biodegradableplastic/uncategorized/is-pla-compostable/ )
Dear all, it is true that the subject of PLA biodegradation was the subject of many contrevercies, but in recent years many researches are devoted to this matter and ongoing to the ways of its biodegradation. The attached files are only exemples. My regards