REVIEW article
Front. Soft Matter
Sec. Biological Soft Matter
Skin Wound Healing Part II: From Traditional Cataplasm To Advanced Wound Dressings
Provisionally accepted
Amanda Guadalupe Romero1*
Andrea Paola Rodriguez2*
Silvia Noemi Kozuszko3
Kenechi Nagano4
Carmelo Jose Felice1
Naoki Katase4- 1CONICET Tucuman, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
- 2Universidad Nacional de Tucuman Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Tecnologia, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
- 3Universidad Nacional de Tucuman Facultad de Odontologia, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina
- 4Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Department of Radiological Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The first part of this review summarizes fundamental wound-healing biology and advances a novel, integrative roadmap for developing next-generation wound technologies that weave together ancestral knowledges and modern biomaterials science, analyzing recent evidence and translational opportunities in that direction. It also examines clinical trials, patents, regulatory issues, and epistemological challenges around medicinal plants. (DOI) This second part delves into historical poultices and the plants used to make them, summarizing reported medicinal effects, key phytochemicals, and mechanisms for topical wound and inflammation modulation. It follows the translation of these materia medica into modern technologies identifying translational routes and technical gaps. In addition, the review examines the validation of medicinal products integrated into modern technological platforms, encompassing in vitro assays, in vivo experiments, and clinical trials. The paper argues that ancestral health paradigms, rooted in ecological knowledge and community practice, can complement biomedical frameworks across research, product design, and clinical use. It prioritizes respectful, participatory approaches that conserve biodiversity and protect the intellectual and cultural rights of source communities while centering patient autonomy and psychosocial support. Finally, it calls out critical evidence gaps and proposes methodological, ethical, and regulatory standards for rigorous ethnopharmacological validation and responsible integration of traditional poultice knowledge into contemporary wound‑care innovation.
Keywords: Wound Healing, ancestral medicines, Herbal Medicine, poultice and cataplasms, Tissue Engineering, translational pipelines, sustainable development, Regulatory standards
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Romero, Paola Rodriguez, Kozuszko, Nagano, Felice and Katase. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Amanda Guadalupe Romero, guaromero@gmail.com
Andrea Paola Rodriguez, aprodriguez@herrera.unt.edu.ar
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.