Burn wounds represent a complex clinical challenge, primarily due to their high susceptibility to infections and the frequent formation of the biofilm, which significantly hinder the healing process. Therefore, effective infection prevention and management are critical components of burn wound care. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the current and emerging antimicrobial strategies in burn management, with a particular focus on alternative approaches to conventional antiseptics and antibiotics. This manuscript highlights the role of metals and metal-based agents, including silver, zinc oxide, and copper compounds, alongside plant-derived bioactive substances such as aloe vera, marigold, and turmeric. Additionally, the potential of antimicrobial peptides and probiotics as innovative therapeutic options is explored, emphasizing their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and pro-healing properties. Finally, this review presents an analysis of recent patents in the field of burn wound care, offering insights into current trends and future directions in the development of advanced wound dressings. By addressing both established and novel strategies, this review aims to provide a valuable resource for clinicians, researchers, and innovators seeking to improve outcomes in burn wound management.

Hydrogels constructed from natural biomacromolecules with multifunctional properties, such as improved mechanical strength, ionic stability, biocompatibility, and ionic conductivity, are highly desirable for advanced food and biomedical applications, yet remain challenging to design. Although alginate is one of the most widely used hydrogel-forming polysaccharides due to its biocompatibility and gelation ability, its intrinsic limitations often hinder the development of hydrogels with fully optimized performance. This review provides a systematic comparison of alginate-based composite hydrogels formed with complementary biopolymers, including whey proteins, gelatin, pectin, starch, and chitosan, focusing on their synergistic effects on structural, mechanical, and functional properties. Recent studies are critically analyzed to elucidate how polymer–polymer interactions influence gel network formation, environmental ionic stability, and encapsulation performance. Particular attention is given to fabrication strategies and formulation parameters that enhance the immobilization and controlled release of probiotics, vitamins, polyphenols, and other bioactive compounds. By integrating current knowledge on structure–function relationships and processing approaches, this review offers practical design guidelines for the development of multifunctional alginate-based hydrogel systems for applications in functional foods and nutraceutical delivery.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat that affects cancer patients more than the general population. In this work, a composite system based on Zn-alginate hydrogel and activated charcoal (AC) particles that, upon contact with physiological fluids, simultaneously releases bioactive agents (Zn²⁺ and AC particles impregnated with povidone–iodine) was designed to locally address specific problems characteristic for malignant wounds (MWs). This composite was comprehensively investigated in vitro regarding its morphology (field-emission scanning electron microscopy), Zn²⁺ release (flame atomic absorption spectrometry), iodine adsorption and desorption from AC particles (energy dispersive X-ray analysis and UV–visible spectroscopy) as well as its antimicrobial and antitumor activity. With respect to the ongoing AMR crises, antimicrobial activity was tested against a wide range of wild multi-drug resistant bacterial and yeast strains, all isolated from patient wounds. Since Zn²⁺ ions proved to be selectors of resistant strains of bacteria, the synergistic activity of AC particles and adsorbed iodine was shown to be crucial for excellent antibacterial activity. On the other hand, the synergy of AC particles and Zn²⁺ ions showed an equally strong antifungal effect. In addition, antimicrobial concentrations of Zn²⁺ ions showed cytotoxic activity against two cancer cell lines derived from cancers affecting skin either as metastatic cancer (breast cancer MDA-MB-453 cell line) or primary cancer of the skin (malignant melanoma Fem-X cell line), which enables Zn²⁺ ions to be further investigated as potent local agents targeting malignant cells.

Lyophilization is an excellent process to increase the shelf life of food products or preserve probiotics. Living cells prefer mild conditions, and any deviation (vacuum, high or low temperatures) leads to cell damage. This paper examined the influence of different freeze-drying process parameters on the survival of probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum immobilized on the activated charcoal pad. In specific, the process included several phases in which different pretreatments, freezing temperatures, cryoprotectants and phase durations were investigated. Activation of L. plantarum in De Man, Rogosa and Sharpe (MRS) broth before freezing, resulted in the increased initial number of living cells, but also positively affected the cell survival after the lyophilization process. Freezing the culture in liquid nitrogen did not significantly affect cell viability after lyophilization compared to deep freezing at -80?C, while incubation of the culture in a refrigerator for 2 h before lyophilization increased the probiotic viability. Also, the prolonged duration of lyophilization from 5 to 48 h had a slight impact on probiotic viability. The use of milk showed a significant increase in culture survival, while sucrose, maltose, and trehalose showed cryoprotectant ability, but significantly lower than that of milk. The best lyophilization protocol resulting in the highest viability of L. plantarum included the culture activation by MRS incubation, followed by either deep freezing in liquid nitrogen or by precooling for 2 h at 7?C and then deep freezing at -80?C in milk, and ending with lyophilization for 5 h.