Research progress and challenges of composite wound dressings containing plant extracts

Wound, burn and tissue-related diseases have caused serious physical and mental trauma to patients, as well as a huge economic burden to society. To address this challenge, continuous efforts have been made to develop wound dressings to deal with various types of intractable wounds, and thus wound dressings have been undergoing rapidly updating. Various plant extracts have been widely applied to biomedical and tissue engineering due to their excellent biocompatibility, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, and low side effects. Based on this, researchers are committed to designing novel wound dressings for the treatment of skin injuries by combining plant extracts with different types of polymer-based biomaterials, including films, hydrocolloids, sponges, foams, hydrogels, and nanofiber dressings. In this review, classification by the types of wound dressing, the composite wound dressings containing various plant extracts have been summarized, mainly focusing on their applications in skin injuries; importantly, the prospects and challenges for the development of composite wound dressings with plant extracts have been discussed. Graphical abstract