All-natural medicine food homology herb-based self-gelling hemostatic powder for rapid hemostasis and diabetic wound management.

Diabetic wound management is characterized by a significantly delayed healing process and the induction of severe complications due to the significant alteration of the immune microenvironment. Additionally, uncontrolled bleeding after trauma further exacerbates the wound healing disorder. Medicine food homology herbs have a promising application prospect for diabetic wound management, however, their inherent properties lead to poor therapeutic effects. Self-gelling powder, a novel wound adjunct, retains the mechanical properties and adhesiveness, while also having the ability to adapt various wounds. Inspired by the concept of medicine food homology, this study designed a self-gelling powder (NR@Pue), composed of puerarin (Pue) and charred Nelumbinis Rhizomatis-derived carbon dots (NR-CDs), to collectively accelerate rapid hemostasis and diabetic wound repair. This powder rapidly self-gelled upon absorbing interfacial water, thereby forming a tight adhesion with the moist tissue surface. Consequently, in a diabetic mouse skin full-thickness defect model, NR@Pue powder accelerated hemostasis, promoted the M1 to M2 polarization of macrophages, enabling the wound to escape the inflammatory phase and enter the proliferative phase, thus enhancing collagen deposition, angiogenesis, and epithelial regeneration. Take together, NR@Pue demonstrated outstanding wound repair capabilities, providing a potential solution for the combined treatment of chronic wounds using self-gelling technology and medicine food homology concept.