Exploring the wound healing activity of phytosomal gel of and leaves ethanolic extracts with antioxidant and antimicrobial activities in infected excision wound model.

Wound healing is a natural process but it is impaired in certain conditions like age, stress, health, immunity status and microbial infection. Particularly in cases of chronic wounds, infection is nearly often the main and unavoidable obstacle to wound healing. For this purpose, leaves of and were selected based on their ethnopharmacological uses and reported pharmacological activities. The ethanolic extracts of both plant parts i.e. ethanolic extracts of (ASEE) and (CTEE) were evaluated for their antioxidant and antimicrobial activities individually as well as in 1:1 combination as Polyherbal Ethanolic extract (PHEE). In our previous work both these ethanolic extracts were combined and phytosomes were prepared by thin layer hydration method and optimized for vesicle size and entrapment efficiency. The phytosomes were then incorporated into Carbopol gel matrix. In this present study the selected phytosomal gel was tested in two different concentrations (2% and 5%) for wound healing activity using infected excision wound model. The various parameters examined were percentage wound contraction, epithelization period, bacteriological quantification, biochemical parameters like Superoxide dismutase (SOD), Catalase and hydroxyproline. The PHEE exhibited synergistic antioxidant activity. The PHEE also showed enhanced antimicrobial activity against bacteria namely gram-positive gram-negative The phytosomal gel showed increased wound contraction, reduced time of epithelization, increased hydroxyproline content, increased levels of SOD and Catalase enzymes and reduced bacterial load when compared with Povidone iodine ointment as standard in infected excision wound model.