Abstract:
Background: Medicinal plants play an important role in treating various diseases. Vernonia
auriculifera Heirn is one of the medicinal plants used traditionally for the management of
wounds. However, there were no scientific reports documented so far on the wound healing
activities to substantiate the claim. Thus, the present study provides a scientific evaluation for the
wound healing potential of the crude extract and solvent fractions of the leaves of the plant in
mice.
Methods: Air-dried leaves of Vernonia auliculifera were extracted by maceration using 80 %
methanol and part of the crude extract fractionated with chloroform, ethyl acetate and aqueous
solvents. Mice and rats were employed for wound healing study and dermal toxicity test
respectively. Mice were randomly grouped into four groups in excision and burn wound models
whereas five groups in incision wound (each 6 mice) assigned for crude extract. For fractions,
eight groups in excision and nine groups in incision model were assigned. Nitrofurazone was
used as positive control in Excision model of crude and fractions while silver sulphadiazine for
burn model but simple ointment served as negative control in each model. Wound healing effects
were evaluated by percent of wound contraction, period of epithelialization, tensile strength and
histological analysis as parameters in excision, incision and burn wound models. Finally, the data
were expressed as mean ± SEM and the results were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed
by Post Hoc Tukey-test.
Results: In excision wound model, the 10 % (W/W) crude extract ointment has showed
significant wound contraction (P < 0.001) from day 4 to day 18 as compared to the negative
control. Similarly, 5 % w/w ointment has shown a significant wound contraction at 4
th, 6th, 8th
and 10th (P < 0.05) and on day 12th (P < 0.01). Both the 5 % W/W (P < 0.001) and 10 % W/W (P
< 0.05) crude extract ointments have showed statistically significant difference in
epithelialization period as compared to the negative control. Groups treated with the ethyl acetate
and aqueous fractions ointments in incision wound model, showed statistically significant (P <
0.001) increase in tensile strength. In incision model, the 10 % W/W and 5 % W/W ointments of
the crude extract showed significant (P < 0.001) increase in breaking strength compared to
simple ointment and the untreated control groups. In burn wound model, significant reduction in
epithelialization period was observed in 5 % W/W (P < 0.05) and 10% W/W (P < 0.001) and the
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percentage of wound contraction was significantly increased in most of post wounding days by
10 % W/W (P < 0.001) and 5 % W/W (P < 0.05) crude extract ointments and compared to the
negative control.
Conclusion: The crude, aqueous and ethyl acetate fraction of Vernonia auriculifera leaves
possess wound healing activities. This finding justifies the use of the leaves of this plant for
wound as claimed in the traditional medicine literatures.
