The present invention provides use of freeze-dried amniotic membranes (FD-HAM) made from human placenta as the scaffold for chondrocytes and/or chondrogenic mesenchymal stem cells (chondrogenic-MSCs). The present invention further provides a method and/or manufacturing process to treat the human amniotic membranes to become scaffold for chondrocytes and/or chondrogenic-MSCs. The scaffold produced by the present invention is inert, biocompatible, biodegradable, with low immunogenicity, appropriate biomechanical properties, longer shelf life, cost effective, easy to procure, easy to process, easy to store and safe.