Wound healing activity of the hydro alcoholic extract of Ficus religiosa leaves in rats
N Nayeem, R Rohini, S Asdaq, A Das
Keywords
burn wound, excision wound, incision wound, wound healing
Citation
N Nayeem, R Rohini, S Asdaq, A Das. Wound healing activity of the hydro alcoholic extract of Ficus religiosa leaves in rats. The Internet Journal of Alternative Medicine. 2008 Volume 6 Number 2.
Abstract
The leaves of
Introduction
Wounds are unavoidable events of life; wounds may arise due to any agent that induces stress & injury and their healing has been one of the well-known problems. Healing is a survival mechanism and represents an attempt to maintain normal anatomical structure and function. Treatment is therefore aimed at minimizing the undesired consequences. Management of under healing of wounds is a complicated and expensive program and research on drugs that increase wound healing is a developing area in modern biomedical sciences. Several drugs obtained from plant sources are known to increase the healing of different types of wounds. Some of these drugs have been screened scientifically for evaluation of their wound healing activity in different pharmacological models and patients, but the potential of many of the traditionally used herbal agents remains unexplored. In few cases, active chemical constituents were identified (1). Hence, there is dearth of rational pro-healing agents for the wound management programme, which can hasten the healing process.
The plant,
Even though, traditionally, leaves of
Materials And Methods
Experimental animals
Healthy Sprague dwaly rats of either sex
Extraction of leaves
The leaves of
Preparation of formulation
The extract was formulated as 5% (w/w) and 10 % (w/w) emulsifying ointments (6). FR 5% (w/w) in emulsifying base was used as a low dose and FR 10% (w/w) was used as a high dose for topical application.
Excision wound model (,)
The animals were anesthetized using ether. An impression was made on the dorsal thoracic region 1 cm away from the vertebral column and 5 cm away from the ear of the anesthetized rat. The skin of that area was shaved and was excised to full thickness to obtain a wound area of about 500 mm2. The animals were divided into four groups and they were treated as follows: Group I: emulsifying base (control), Group II: standard nitrofurazone 0.2% (w/w) ointment, Group III: 5% FR ointment (low dose) and Group IV: 10% FR ointment (high dose).
The ointments were applied once daily until complete healing of wound. The wound area was measured on a millimeter scale graph paper. The percentage of wound healing was calculated on pre determined days post wounding. Falling of scar was taken as the endpoint for complete epithelization and the days taken for this was considered as period of epithelization. The wound contraction and period of epithelization were measured in all groups.
Incision wound model (,,)
In the incision wound model two para vertebral straight incisions of 6 cm were made on either sides of the vertebral column, homeostasis was achieved by blotting the wound with a cotton swab dipped in saline and the wound was closed by means of interrupted sutures at equidistance 1 cm apart. Animals were treated daily with drugs, as mentioned above under excision wound model from 0 day to 9th post-wounding day. The wound breaking strength was estimated on the 10th day by continous, constant water flow technique. The tensile strength in each group is determined.
Burn wound model ()
The animals were anesthetized and grouped as in the incision model. Partially thickened burn wounds were inflected by pouring hot molten wax at 800 C on the shaven back of the rat through a cylinder of 300 mm2 circular opening. The wax was allowed to remain on the skin till it solidified; the cylinder was then removed with the wax adhering to it, which left a partial thickness circular burn wound. Immediately after injury and on subsequent days, the ointments were applied as mentioned above in the incision wound model.
Statistical analysis
Results are expressed as mean ± SEM. The comparisons between experimental groups were made using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Dunnet test. P<0.05 was considered significant.
Results
Preliminary phytochemical investigation
The phytochemical analysis of the hydro alcoholic extract of FR revealed the presence of tannins, sterols, saponins, flavonoids, carbohydrates and proteins.
Effect on excision and incision wound
Both high as well as low concentration of
The breaking strength of 10 days old incision wound was increased by all treatments. The high dose of FR was more effective than low dose and standard in increasing the breaking strength of the incision wound (Table 1).
Figure 1
Effect on burn wound
Like the excision wound model, application of FR (5%), FR (10%) as well as Nitrofurazone 0.02% topically shortened the period of epithelization significantly (
Figure 2
Discussion
The present study was undertaken to evaluate whether
Collagenation, wound contraction and epithelization are crucial phases of wound healing. The phases of inflammation, macrophasia, fibroplasia and collagenation are intimately interlinked. Thus an intervention into any one of these phases by drugs could eventually either promote or depress one, other or all phases of healing. Growth hormone is known to promote the healing process by enhancing epithelial cell proliferation and cell collagen formation. Collagen is the family of protein, which provide structural support and it is the main component of tissue such as fibrous tissue, cartilage. The collagen synthesis is stimulated by various growth factors (13). Growth hormone is also known to promote the proliferation of fibroblasts (14) and fibroblast proliferation form the granulation tissue. The exact mechanism(s) by which
To conclude, leaves of
Correspondence to
Syed Mohammed Basheeruddin Asdaq, Asst. Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy, Varthur Hobli, Chikkabellandur village, Carmalaram Post, Bangalore-560 035 INDIA E-mail: basheer_1@rediffmail.com/sasdaq@gmail.com Phone: +91-80-25535751 Fax: +91-80-51309161