Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are emerging as future approaches for the treatment of acute and chronic diseases. However, many challenging clinical conditions exist today and include congenital disorders, trauma, infection, inflammation and cancer, in which hard and soft tissue damage, organ failure and loss are still not treated effectively. Regenerative medicine has contributed to a number of innovations through artificial implants and biomedical materials, with advances are continually being made. Researchers are constantly developing new biomaterials and tissue engineered technologies to stimulate tissue regeneration in order to repair and replace damaged or malfunctioning organs. However, the challenge continues to lie in devising effective biomedical materials that can be implanted as scaffolds. Various approaches are emerging, according to the organ, tissue, disease and disorder. Scaffolds are implanted cell-free, or incorporated with stems cells, committed cells, or bioactive molecules. Irrespective, engineered biomaterials are required to regenerate and ultimately reproduce the original physiological, biological, chemical and mechanical properties over time. This is enabled by providing a three-dimensional architecture for cells to adhere, migrate, proliferate within, and differentiate appropriately for the growth of new tissues to provide a relevant structure, and in so doing, restore function. Biodegradable materials have been used extensively as regenerative therapies since their advent in early 20th century. One notable example is the development of surgical fixation devices. The selection, design and physicochemical properties of these materials are important and must consider biocompatibility, biodegradability and minimal cytotoxicity in the host to enable cell-proliferation, cell-matrix interactions and intercellular signalling for stimulating tissue growth. In this review, we critique the most studied and recently developed biodegradable