Chinese herbal medicine-inspired construction of multi-component hydrogels with antibacterial and wound-healing-promoting functions

Abstract

Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has offered a great treasure and source of inspiration for developing innovative medicinal materials and therapy. In this work, inspired by the macroscopic compatibility of Puerariae Lobatae Radix and Gypsum Ustum in CHM, the puerarin (PUE) and CaSO₄ (Ca) as the main constituents, respectively, from the two herbs are co-assembled into two-component molecular hydrogels. Such two-component gels exhibited enhanced mechanical properties compared with the single-component PUE gel due to the introduction of crosslinking hydrogen bonds between PUE and Ca. Importantly, the two-component gels show good biocompatibility and antibacterial and antioxidant properties. Moreover, in vivo wound healing experiments on an E. coli-infected mouse model together with the histological and immunological analyses were conducted, revealing that the two-component gels possessed good wound-healing-promoting functions. Our research shows how the medication practice of CHM can contribute to the development of novel bio-soft materials. It is anticipated that more herbal medicine-inspired medicinal materials will be built and tailored for specific bio-applications.