Functional Prominence of Natural Gum‐Based Crosslinked Hydrogels for Wound Healing and Dye Degradation Applications

ABSTRACT Natural gum‐based hydrogels have gained prominence as eco‐friendly materials, yet current literature lacks a comparative, application‐specific critique of their dual‐role functionality. This review uniquely dissects the translational promise of hydrogels derived from acacia, guar, xanthan, and tragacanth gums in two divergent domains: wound healing and dye degradation. Unlike existing reviews, which are either overly generalized or domain‐isolated, this work critically analyzes structure–function relationships, crosslinking efficiencies, and functional performance metrics to establish a direct comparison. The novelty lies in the detailed juxtaposition of biomedical and environmental utility, supported by rheological data, degradation behavior, and application‐specific efficacy. Wound healing studies show maturity with well‐defined parameters (gelation time, porosity, mechanical strength), while dye degradation applications weakly display the superficial characterization and underexplored structure–performance correlations. This imbalance underscores a research gap in environmental applications while reinforcing the biomedical edge of these biopolymers. Additionally, the review identifies key underutilized strategies, such as enzyme‐mediated crosslinking and mechanistic analysis via spectroscopic tools. This critical synthesis not only informs material selection for specific applications but also guides future design and optimization of polysaccharide hydrogels for circular bioeconomy goals.