Wound Healing: Traditional plant based and Modern wound dressing-An update

Wound healing is a long expensive process and represent a major burden to patients, healthcare providers and healthcare systems. There are many risk factors, such as age, malnutrition, infections, smoking, medications or radiation, associated with improper wound healing. Wound dressings are divided into traditional plant based or conventional dressings (such as cotton gauze, bandages, lint, plasters) and modern multifunctional dressings (such as foams, films, bio-plymers based, hydrocolloids, hydrogels, nanocomposites). Conventional dressings are known as passive wound dressings and are useful to cover and stabilize modern wound dressings. In a traditional Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine, plants and plant-based constituents have been extensively used for the treatment and management of different types of wounds. Traditional healers are significant for public health in Indian rural communities, and many individuals have confidence in the healing attributes of herbal medicine. The wound healing remedies from Ayurveda are safe and gentle on the body. The Ayurvedic treatment of wound healing suggested the use of herbal formulations. Therefore, plant constituent based wound dressings are very effective treatment in the management of wound healing process. Plants contain many natural bioactive compounds that help to fasten the process of wound healing and regenerate tissue at the wound site. Hydrogels are considered as ideal wound dressings because they mimic the skin structure, promoting the growth factor synthesis and autolysis process. It was stated that biofilms impact chronic wound healing by delaying the inflammatory and maturation phases. NFC-based hydrogels can be used in advanced wound care applications. Nanoparticles have been widely used as promising candidates for wound treatment. Nanotechnology offers excellent opportunities to address the problems of non- or slow-healing wounds, as wound healing solutions can be designed to be multifactorial and cell-type specific.