Abstract
Aloe vera, also referred as Aloe barbadensis Miller, is a succulent plant widely used for biomedical, pharmaceutical and cosmetic applications. Aloe vera has been used for thousands of years. However, recent significant advances have been made in the development of aloe vera for tissue engineering applications. Aloe vera has received considerable attention in tissue engineering due to its biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity properties. Aloe vera has been reported to have many biologically active components. The bioactive components of aloe vera have effective antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune-modulatory effects that promote both tissue regeneration and growth. The aloe vera plant, its bioactive components, extraction and processing, and tissue engineering prospects are reviewed in this article. The use of aloe vera as tissue engineering scaffolds, gels, and films is discussed, with a special focus on electrospun nanofibers.
Highlights
Aloe vera is one of the oldest medicinal plants on record due to its biological properties and health benefits
The results showed homogenous and linear fiber morphology when poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is mixed with aloe vera, and the average size of fibers was smaller than the PVA fibers
This study suggested that the incorporation of aloe vera gel into film-forming chitosan solution could have a considerable influence on the properties of the obtained chitosan-aloe vera gel blend films
Summary
Aloe vera is one of the oldest medicinal plants on record due to its biological properties and health benefits. The aloe vera plant is one of the most studied herbs in the natural products category. Due to the numerous beneficial effects, the use of aloe vera in tissue engineering has gained importance. The bioactive components in aloe vera have been reported to have antifungal [5], antiseptic [1], antiviral [6], antibacterial [7], anti-inflammatory [8], antioxidant [9], and wound healing [10] properties. We highlight the fundamentals of the aloe vera plant and its bioactive components for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. We discuss the influence of aloe vera combined with other biomolecules such as polycaprolactone (PCL), collagen, chitosan, and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)
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