Wound Healing Activity of Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poit (Lamiaceae)

Hyptis Suaveolens (L.)Poit is a traditional pubescent annual herb found throughout India. On the basis of its traditional use and literature references, this plant was selected for the screening of wound healing property. The leaves of Hyptis Suaveolens were exhaustively extracted by soxhlet apparatus with different solvents like petroleum ether, solvent ether, chloroform, alcohol and chloroform water in ascending order of the polarity. All the five extracts were subjected to antibacterial screening by using the cup plate method. The petroleum ether, alcoholic and chloroform water extract showed maximum zone of inhibition. So these extracts were taken for wound healing activity. The effect of petroleum ether, alcohol, and aqueous extract of leaves was evaluated in excision, incision and dead space wound healing models using Albino wistar rats. Among the extracts, petroleum ether extracts showed significant wound healing activity on all three wound models compared to other extracts by calculating the parameters, percentage closure of excision wound, period of epithelization, tensile strength, dry weight granulation tissue, breaking strength of granulation tissue and hydroxyproline content. Histopathological study of the granulation tissue of the petroleum ether extract treated group evidenced increased collagenation when compared to control group of animals. Presence of sterols, flavonoids, tannins in various extracts was also confirmed by preliminary phytochemical investigation, TLC and HPTLC methods.