Nanomaterials of Natural Bioactive Compounds for Wound Healing: Novel Drug Delivery Approach

Wound healing is a biological phenomenon of the body involving sequential biochemical processes that are primarily involved in restoring the cellular integrity of the organ. The market related to wound-care products has extensively been expanded and crossed over fifteen billion US dollars, along with twelve billion US dollars for treating wound scars. Different bioactive compounds have shown their various pharmacological actions including wound healing activity. Natural bioactive agents have gained much attention in wound management due to their beneficial nature of possessing least side effects. Some of the bioactive compounds which have shown pronounced wound healing potentials,such as curcumin, quercetin, lawsone, resveratrol, aloe vera, astragaloside, essential oils, growth factors, andrographolide, bilirubin, etc. Most of the natural bioactive agents have limited applicability in clinical practices due to poor aqueous solubility, fast degradation rate and low bioavailability. These problems have been overcome in last few years by encapsulating them into nano-formulations. The nanomaterials of bioactive agents offer discrete advantages like high surface area to volume ratio and nanoscale size offering alternations in physical and chemical properties. These nanomaterials also have sustained controlled release delivery, which seems to be very effective for the lengthy process of wound healing. Many investigations by the global researchers have focused on the emergence of nanomaterials in wound healing applications. In the present review, different natural bioactive agents in the form of nanoformulations have been discussed for wound healing potentials.