Developed methods for the preparation of electrospun nanofibers containing plant-derived oil or essential oil: a systematic review

Abstract

Recently, natural health products as alternatives for synthetic/chemical substances have become a growing area of interest. Plant-derived essential oils or oils (E/Os) with a wide range of bioactivities such as anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, and antioxidant activities are widely used among natural materials. Furthermore, nanofibers (NFs) with distinct properties, including large surface area, many available ingredients for preparation, and various preparation methods have attracted much attention. The present systematic review is an attempt to collect and document the recent studies from 01.01.2013 to 31.12.2018, indicating the loading of E/O in electrospun NFs. First, a summary of the electrospinning process and applications of electrospun NFs in medicine were given. Then, the three manners, which have been introduced for preparing E/O-loaded NFs so far, were described. Moreover, the main techniques for characterization of such NFs, e.g., evaluation of size and morphology, determination of the loaded amount of E/O in NFs, and investigating their release behavior, were explained.