nutrients Review A Review on Antifungal Efficiency of Plant Extracts Entrenched Polysaccharide-Based Nanohydrogels Navkiranjeet Kaur 1 , Aarti Bains 2 , Ravinder Kaushik 3 , Sanju B. Dhull 4 , Fogarasi Melinda 5, * and Prince Chawla 1, *   Citation: Kaur, N.; Bains, A.; Kaushik, R.; Dhull, S.B.; Melinda, F.; Chawla, P. A Review on Antifungal Efficiency of Plant Extracts Entrenched Polysaccharide-Based Nanohydrogels. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2055. https://doi.org/10.3390/ nu13062055 Academic Editors: Jean Christopher Chamcheu, Anthony L. Walker and Felicite Noubissi-Kamdem Received: 23 April 2021 Accepted: 9 June 2021 Published: 15 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara 144411, Punjab, India; navikooner1998@gmail.com 2 Department of Biotechnology, Chandigarh Group of Colleges Landran, Mohali 140307, Punjab, India; aarti05888@gmail.com 3 School of Health Sciences, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun 248007, Uttrakhand, India; ravinder_foodtech2007@rediffmail.com 4 Department of Food Science and Technology, Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa 125055, Haryana, India; sanjudhull@gmail.com 5 Department of Food Engineering, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, Calea Mănăstur 3–5, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania * Correspondence: melinda.fogarasi@usamvcluj.ro (F.M.); princefoodtech@gmail.com (P.C.) Abstract: Human skin acts as a physical barrier; however, sometimes the skin gets infected by fungi, which becomes more severe if the infection occurs on the third layer of the skin. Azole derivative- based antifungal creams, liquids, or sprays are available to treat fungal infections; however, these formulations show various side effects on the application site. Over the past few years, herbal extracts and various essential oils have shown effective antifungal activity. Additionally, autoxidation and epimerization are significant problems with the direct use of herbal extracts. Hence, to overcome these obstacles, polysaccharide-based nanohydrogels embedded with natural plant extracts and oils have become the primary choice of pharmaceutical scientists. These gels protect plant-based bioactive compounds and are effective delivery agents because they release multiple bioactive compounds in the targeted area. Nanohydrogels can be applied to infected areas, and due to their contagious nature and penetration power, they get directly absorbed through the skin, quickly reaching the skin’s third layer and effectively reducing the fungal infection. In this review, we explain various skin fungal infections, possible treatments, and the effective utilization of plant extract and oil-embedded polysaccharide-based nanohydrogels. Keywords: fungal infections; nanohydrogel; skin; polysaccharide; essential oils 1. Introduction Skin acts as a protector of the internal organs by shielding against external agents, sunburn, and by regulating body temperature; however, sometimes pathogens invade the body and disturb the skin protective properties, leading to skin diseases or infections [1]. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi can cause skin diseases. Fungal infections are more severe because they occur on the third layer of the skin [2]. Fungi act on keratin tissue such as skin, nails, and hair [3]. In the skin, fungi lead to subcutaneous infections, and over the past years, the cases of fungal skin infections have been increasing rapidly, especially in immune-compromised individuals [4]. Several well-known severe skin infections (Table 1) such as Tinea corporis (ringworm), Tinea pedis, Tinea faciei, Tinea manuum, Tinea cruris (Jock-itch), and Tinea barbae are caused mainly by Trichophyton species [5,6]. Nutrients 2021, 13, 2055. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13062055 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients