INTRODUCTION:

Medicinal plants play a significant role in the field of treatment and cure of diseases. Over the years, scientific research has extended our information of the chemical effects and composition of the active constituents, which conclude the medicinal properties of plants. It has been worldwide established that the plant drugs are safer than synthetic medicines. Herbs are enactment a comeback and herbal ‘renaissance’ is happening all over the globe. The herbal products today symbolize safety in contrast to the synthetics that are regarded as unsafe to human and environment. Although herbs had been priced for their medicinal, flavoring and aromatic qualities for centuries, the synthetic products of the modern age surpassed their importance, for a while. However, the blind confidence on synthetics is over and people are returning to the naturals with hope of safety and security. As a part of the strategy to diminish the monetary burden on developing countries, it is obvious that an increased use of plant drugs will be followed in the future¹. Since prehistoric times, mankind all over the world mainly depended upon plant kingdom to meet their all needs of medicines.

It had prompted the early man to explore his immediate natural surrounding and try many plants, mineral, animal products and develop a variety of therapeutic agents. Medicinal plants still play an important role in emerging and developing countries.They also generate income to people of many Asian countries who can earn their livelihood from selling collected materials from the forest or by cultivating on their farms. Thus, the medicinal plants constitute very important rational resources². This reflects that medicinal plants and their products have taken an increasing demand.

Wound is a breach in the normal tissue range, resulting in a variety of cellular and molecular sequelae³. Management of healing of wounds is an intricate programme. Several drugs obtained from plant sources are known to amplify the healing of different type of wounds. Though some of these drugs have been screened scientifically for evaluation of their wound healing activity in different pharmacological models. These review summaries the scientific evidenced of those medicinal plants which were assessed by various researchers for the exploration of these plants as wound healers.

MEDICINAL PLANTS WITH WOUND HEALING POTENTIAL:

Acaphyla langinia:

R. M. Perez Gutierrez and co-workers evaluated wound healing properties of Acaphyla langinia and reported that aqueous extract of leaves of A. langinia significantly increased the healing process⁴.

Catharanthus roseus:

B S Nayak and co-workers evaluated wound healing properties of Catharanthus roseus flower extract in Sprague dawley rats and reported that C. roseus significantly increased the wound breaking strength in the incision wound model compared with controls⁵.

Termanalia arjuna:

Madhura m. rane and co-workers carried-out Comparative effect of oral administration and topical application of alcoholic extract of Termanalia arjuna bark on incision and excision wounds in rats and a significant increase in the tensile strength of the wounds was observed after oral administration as well as topical treatment with 50% ethanolic extract of T. Arjuna bark ⁶.

Calendula officinalis:

Preethi K. Chandran and co-workers evaluated the potential healing activity of Calendula officinalis flower extract against thermal burns in animals⁷.

Cecropia peltata:

B. Shivananda Nayak evaluated the Cecropia Peltata L for wound healing potential and reported that ethanolic and aqueous extract of Cecropia Peltata L causes statistically significant reductions in wound areas compared with respective controls⁸.

Centella asiatica:

A. Shukla and co-workers performed the in vitro and in vivo wound healing activity of asiaticoside isolated from Centella asiatica and reported that topical applications of 0.2% solution of asiaticoside produced 56% increase in hydroxyproline, 57% increase in tensile strength, increased collagen content and better epithelisation in guinea pig punch wounds⁹.

Datura Alba:

The alcohol extract of the Datura Alba leaves were investigated for the evaluation of its healing efficiency on burn wound models in rats by K. Shanmuga Priya and co-workers ¹⁰.

Aristolochia bracteolata Lam:

A. Shirwaikar and co-workers evaluated wound healing studies of Aristolochia bracteolata Lam. with supportive action of antioxidant enzymes. The plant showed a significant increase of the level of two powerful antioxidant enzymes ¹¹.

Thespesia populnea:

A.N. Nagappa and co-work`ers performed the wound healing activity of the aqueous extract of Thespesia populnea fruit. They reported that aqueous extract of T. populnea fruit showed significant wound healing activity in the excision and incision wound models in rats following topical and oral administration, respectively ¹².

Termanalia arjuna:

Pulok K. Mukherjee and co-workers reported the wound healing activity of two herbal formulations (Himax ointment and lotion) containing Indradaru extract Arjuna bark (Termanalia Arjuna) extract was evaluated for its wound healing potential in two types of wound models in rats namely excision and incision. Both the formulations responded significantly in both the wound models tested ¹³.

Heliotropium indicum:

The ethanolic extracts of Heliotropium indicum, Plumbago zeylanicum and Acalypha indica evaluated for their wound healing activity in rats by J. Suresh Reddy and co-workers. H. indicum possesses better wound healing activity than P. zeylanicum and A. indica ¹⁴.

Holoptelea integrifolia:

Boreddy Srinivas Reddy and co-workers evaluated the antimicrobial, antioxidant and wound-healing potentials of Holoptelea integrifolia and reported methanolic extract of stem bark (MSBE) has shown bigger zone of inhibition and significant antioxidant and wound healing property ¹⁵.

Tephrosia purpurea:

Santram Lodhi and co-workers evaluated wound healing potential of Tephrosia purpurea Linn Pers in rats. They reported that ethanolic extract of Tephrosia purpurea (aerial part) in the form of simple ointment was found to be effective in incision wound, excision wound and dead space wound model ¹⁶.

Tragia involucrate:

R. Perumal Samy and co-workers evaluated wound healing potential of Tragia involucrata extract in rats and reported that methanol extract of the roots of Tragia involucrata topically tested at doses of 100 and 200 mg/kg exerted significant wound healing effect in Staphylococcus aureus-induced excision wound in rats ¹⁷.

Peperomia galioides, Anredera diffusa and Jatropha curcas:

Ledn F. Villegas and co-workers evaluated wound-healing activity of selected traditional medicinal plants in Peru and reported that significant wound-healing activity was detected in Peperomia galioides, Anredera diffusa and Jatropha curcas ¹⁸.

Leucas lavandulaefolia Rees:

Kakali Saha and co-workers evaluated wound healing activity of Leucas lavandulaefolia Rees. In the present study, methanolic extract of Leucas lavandulaefolia was examined for its wound healing activity in the form of ointment and injection in excision and incision wound model. The results stated that injection and ointment of the methanol extract of plant material produced a noteworthy response in both the models ¹⁹.

Trichosanthes dioica:

Yogesh Shivhare and co-workers assessed the methanolic extract of Trichosanthes dioica for wound healing activity. The present study reported extract ointment showed significant healing in both excision and incision wound models ²⁰.

CONCLUSION:

There has been a change in worldwide fashion from synthetic to herbal medicine in recent times. Today, people around the world are giving preference to natural drugs due to the, increasing realization of the side effects of allopathic medicines. This increase the demand of herbal drugs. The present work focuses on the potential of medicinal plants for wound healing activity. It also makes an attempt to provide a scientific account of possible phytochemicals available for the preparation of herbal drugs to overcome the problems associated with wounds.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

Mr. Yogesh Shivhare the author would like to express their heartfelt thanks to Dr. M.L. Kori, Principal and Head, Vedica College of B. Pharmacy, Bhopal (M.P.) for constant support during this work.

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Received on 23.12.2013 Modified on 12.01.2014

Res. J. Pharmacology & P’dynamics. 6(1): Jan.-Mar. 2014; Page 41-43