An Overview of Cutaneous Wounds and the Beneficial Roles of Medicinal Plants in Promoting Wound Healing

Abstract

It is undeniable that many patients worldwide suffer from various types of wounds, especially chronic wounds. The complex and intricate process of wound healing has a severe impact on the patient’s quality of life as well as causing an economic burden on healthcare institutions. Although various new therapies have become available for treating patients with acute and chronic wounds for the past decade, the available therapies are often expensive or accompanied by undesirable side effects. Hence, the discovery of a new arsenal for wound healing remains a hot topic of research. Recently, plants or herbs and their derivatives have garnered significant attention as a source of therapeutic agents to treat wounds. This is because plants provide a rich reservoir of phytochemicals that could potentially become effective and affordable therapeutic agents. Thus, the present review attempted to outline wound healing mechanisms and analysed some renowned medicinal plants with potential wound healing properties from the existing literature from various electronic databases. This review also sheds light on the plant’s underlying molecular mechanisms and, wherever available, acknowledges the biologically active substances found in these plants.

Keywords

• wound healing
• medicinal plants
• chronic wounds