A Review on Traditional Medicine Used for Burn Treatment

Abstract

Abstract Considering the high consumption of and preference for traditional treatments among people and the lack of enough studies on the effectiveness of these treatments, we aimed to review articles on the use of traditional and complementary medicine, focusing on how they affect healing, debridement, and hypertrophic scars. In this study, we conducted the literature search in international databases PubMed, Google Scholar, Ovid, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library, as well as Persian databases Scientific Information Database (SID), Magiran, Iranmedex, and IranDoc. Retrieved hits were reviewed by three authors for screening based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the screening process is expressed as Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework flow chart. Twenty-two studies were included. The evaluated outcomes were wound healing in 19, pain control in 5, itching in 4, and scar appearance in 2 studies. All of the studies showed equal or improved effects compared to common treatments. Aloe vera, Centella asiatica, and Arnebia euchroma were the most common plants. We revealed that traditional medicine is beneficial in burn wound treatment. The diversity in ingredients that are used in traditional medicine brings up the need for further controlled prospective studies to evaluate the precise superiority of these treatments compared to standard care.