Evaluation of Wound Healing Potential of Ethanol-Seed Extract of Chrysophyllum albidum in Wistar Rat

Wound healing activities of the ethanol-seed extract of Chrysophyllum albidum have been established. However, scientific evaluation of its wound healing potential at different concentrations is lacking. Thus, the present study aimed to assess the wound healing activity of ethanol extract of Chrysophyllum albidum seeds at different concentrations. The seed cotyledon was extracted with ethanol by continuous cold extraction. Phytochemicals, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of the extract were assayed by standard methods. Five groups of male wistar rats consisting of five animals each was used for the animal studies. The group 1 served as the negative control (untreated). Groups 2, 3 and 4 was treated with ethanol extract at varying dose of 2g/ml, 4g/ml and 6g/ml respectively, serving as the test groups. Group 5 animals served as the positive control (reference). All animals were experimentally wounded in the sterilized shaved dorsal fur region. Comparative wound healing efficiency of the control, test and reference groups were assessed. Quantitative phytochemical analysis of the extracts showed that alkaloid content is 11.14mg/100g dried sample. The scavenging effect of seed extracts and standard (L-ascorbic acid) on the DPPH radical is L-ascorbic acid 51.44 % > Ethanol 49.05% at concentration of 0.6 mg/mL respectively. The ethanol extract of the seed showed high MIC against Serratia fonticola and Aeromonas veronii microorganism with 25 mg/mL concentration. In all groups, the feed intake increased gradually through the weeks. The decreasing order of wound healing capacity of the groups was obtained to be group 5 > group 4 > group 3 > group 2 > group 1 respectively. This implies that the higher the concentration of the ethanol extract of C. albidum seed, the higher the healing potential, the less the feeding and the greater the weight of animals in the post wounding days as applied to the reference groups (group 1). The results of this study offers pharmacological evidence of the folk use of Chrysophyllum albidum seed for wound healing. The study recommended that the usefulness of the seed extract as a cream should be examined in further research.