Natural inorganic ingredients in wound healing

Background: One of the major clinical challenges is to achieve a rapid and efficient treatment of complex chronic wounds. Nowadays, most wound dressings currently available are unable to find a solution to the challenges of resistance to bacterial infection, protein adsorption and increased levels of exudates. Natural inorganic ingredients (clay minerals, metal cations, zeolites, etc) could be the key to solve the problem satisfactorily. Some of these materials have shown biocompatibility and ability to enhance cell adhesion, proliferation and cellular differentiation and uptake. Besides, some natural inorganic ingredients effectively retain drugs, allowing the design of drug delivery matrices. Objective: possibilities of natural inorganic ingredients in wound healing treatments have been reviewed, the following sections have been included: Conclusion: Inorganic ingredients possess useful features for the development of chronic wounds advanced treatments. They improve physical (mechanical resistance and water vapor transmission), chemical (release of drugs, hemostasis and/or adsorption of exudates and moisture) and biological (antimicrobial effects and improvement of healing) properties of wound dressings. In summary, inorganic ingredients have proved to be a promising and easily accessible products in the treatment of wounds and, more importantly, chronic wounds.