Plant-Origin Compounds and Materials for Advancing Bone Tissue Engineering and 3D Bioprinting: Traditional Medicine Aspects and Current Perspectives

Bone defects are becoming a true challenge in global health care due to the aging population and higher prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders. The interest in using plant-origin compounds and plant-derived biomaterials in bone tissue engineering (BTE) has been increased due to their availability (abundance), safety, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and low cost. Plant-origin compounds have supportive effects on bone tissue healing, and cell-laden plant-derived biomaterials can be applied in formulating bioinks for three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting to facilitate the preparation of native bone tissue–mimicking structures and customized bone scaffolds. Such plant-derived materials also have the capacity to improve cell viability and support osteoconductive and osteoinductive properties of a bone construct. In this article, we review the ethnomedical aspects related to the use of medicinal plants and plant-origin bioactive compounds in bone healing and the recent developments in the 3D bioprinting of bone constructs with plant-derived biomaterials for advancing BTE. The commonly used 3D-bioprinting techniques, the properties of plant-origin compounds and biomaterials (for bone 3D bioprinting), and the selective examples of bone scaffolds fabricated using plant-derived biomaterials are discussed with a special reference set on applicability, performance, advantages, limitations, and challenges. Plant-origin compounds, biomaterials, and biomimetic 3D-bioprinted constructs could be the basis for a next-generation BTE.