Carboxymethyl cellulose/poloxamer gels enriched with essential oil and Ag nanoparticles: promising wound dressings.

Essential oils are promising antibacterial and wound-healing agents that should be explored for the design of wound dressings. Topical gels prepared from a combination of carboxymethyl cellulose and poloxamer were incorporated with tea tree and lavender oil together with Ag nanoparticles. release, cytotoxicity, antibacterial, and wound healing studies were performed. The gels displayed good spreadability with viscosity in the range of 210-1200 cP. The gels displayed promising antibacterial activity against selected Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria used in the study. The % cell viability of the gels was more than 90.83%. The topical gels displayed excellent wound closure revealing that they are potential wound dressings for bacteria-infected wounds.