Konjac glucomannan hydrogel dressing and its combination with Chinese medicine for the wound treatment

Wound dressings with good biocompatibility and bioactivity are urgently needed in wound treatment. Herein, we present a konjac glucomannan (KGM) hydrogel and its combination with Chinese medicine, including watermelon frost (WF) and Arnebia root oil (ARO), for wound treatment. The mechanical properties of KGM hydrogels were optimized by tuning preparation conditions, including pH and concentrations of KGM and NaCl. The deacetylation of glucomannan in alkaline conditions is the key to gel formation and an optimal hydrogel with good mechanical property was prepared in the conditions of pH 13.5, 3.3 wt% KGM, and 3.3 wt% NaCl. The KGM hydrogel displayed good biocompatibility and maintained 75.4% water retention capacity in one week. It showed a faster wound-healing ability than gauze in the acute wound model, and its combination with ARO demonstrated a better promotion of wound healing than the hydrogel alone or the combination with WF. Our study suggests that the KGM hydrogel has potential in wound dressing and an enhanced therapeutic effect could be obtained by its combination with Chinese medicine.