Recent Advances on Starch-Based Biomaterials: A Review

Starch’s versatility inspires biomaterials for biomedical uses, customized through modifications, blending, or substituents. Diligent efforts have been dedicated to the development of starch-based biomaterials, leveraging the material’s inherent biocompatibility and biodegradability, while aligning with environmentally sustainable considerations. While promising, most studies lack in vivo data and scalability assessments. In many cases, the reported advances are restricted to in vitro evaluations with limited information on long-term performance, clinical translation, and large-scale manufacturing feasibility in both economic and operational terms. This review furnishes an up-to-date synthesis of information available in the literature concerning recent breakthroughs in utilizing starch as a biomaterial, primarily focusing on advancements in areas such as wound dressings, drug delivery systems, the creation of scaffolds for regenerative medicine, and applications in tissue engineering. Advances have been made, with biomaterials presenting adequate biodegradability rates, active functions, good biocompatibility, and mechanical properties. However, it is noted that most research has not yet reached in vivo evaluations and lacks notions of large-scale production, in both economic and operational terms.