Effect of Erythrophleum Suaveolens (Guill. & Perr.) Brenan on normal and infected wounds

Aim of study: To investigate dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and aqueous fractions of methanolic extract of Erythrophleum suaveolens stem-bark for normal wound healing and infected wound healing using excision wound model in Wistar rats as a follow up to an initial study of crude extract. Methods: Local infection was introduced into rat abdominal wounds with Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using a 108 cells/ml inoculum. Rate of wound healing was assessed by wound contraction and period of epithelization. Results: The aqueous fraction treated wounds were found to epithelize faster and the rate of wound contraction was significantly increased as compared to control wounds. The test drug achieved 100% wound contraction on day 14 in normal wounds, on day 12 in Staphylococcus aureus wounds and on day 14 in Pseudomonas aeruginosa wounds. Conclusions: The results indicated that the aqueous fraction of Erythrophleum suaveolens stem-bark promotes wound healing significantly and proves to be a potential ant-infective agent.