Pitt Supaphol
Electrospun nanofibers loaded with herbal extracts represent a rapidly evolving frontier in advanced wound healing and tissue engineering. This comprehensive review systematically analyzes 96 recent studies (2023–2025) investigating the development, characterization, and therapeutic applications of plant extract-incorporated electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds. The review encompasses diverse polymer systems including polycaprolactone, polyvinyl alcohol, polylactic acid, chitosan, and their blends, combined with bioactive extracts from medicinal plants demonstrating antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and regenerative properties. I examine extraction methodologies, electrospinning parameters, fiber characterization techniques, drug loading and release kinetics, antimicrobial efficacy, biocompatibility, and in vivo wound healing outcomes. Particular emphasis is placed on innovative multilayer architectures, coaxial configurations, pH-responsive systems, and smart dressings incorporating additional functionalities such as piezoelectricity, color-change indicators, and controlled release mechanisms. The synergistic integration of natural bioactive compounds with engineered nanofibrous matrices demonstrates remarkable potential for addressing multidrug-resistant infections, diabetic wounds, burn injuries, and chronic wounds. This review provides critical insights into current achievements, identifies persistent challenges including standardization, scalability, and regulatory considerations, and delineates future research directions toward clinical translation of these promising biomaterials. This review further provides a dedicated critical-synthesis and comparative-analysis section, a phytochemistry-to-performance conceptual framework, consolidated comparative tables, and an expanded treatment of phytochemical structure-activity relationships.