BACKGROUND: In this study, polyesters of glycerol, aconitic acid and cinnamic acid were synthesized and studied for their potential application as scaffolds in tissue engineering. Aconitic acid can be recovered from molasses, while glycerol and cinnamic acid can be recovered from pretreated sugarcane bagasse used for bio-ethanol production. Polyester synthesis was carried out at different molar ratios of reactants at a temperature of 120 degrees C for 5 h. Synthesized polyesters were characterized chemically and mechanically, and evaluated for their cytotoxicity and chemical stability towards human adipose derived mesenchymal pluripotent stem cells (hASC). RESULTS: Several cytocompatibility tests such as mass loss over a period of time, alamar blue to analyze growth and viability of hASC on polyester scaffolds, picogreen for total DNA content synthesized, indicated that these polyesters hold promise as tissue engineering scaffolds. For skin tissue engineering, especially for wound repair, thin film polyester scaffolds laden with hASC were grown in stromal medium supplemented with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF). For all the scaffolds, the amount of collagen synthesized in bFGF supplemented medium was significantly higher than the scaffolds with hASC in control (stromal) medium (P<0.05) CONCLUSION: Based on the amount of collagen synthesized and DNA quantification data, it was concluded that the polyesters are cytocompatible and support fibroblastic differentiation by the addition of bFGF. (C) 2015 Society of Chemical Industry