Medicinal Plants with Wound Healing and Antioxidant Activity: An Update

For centuries, plants have been used to treat several diseases worldwide including wound healing, and are still playing a major role in healthcare systems in many developing countries. Wound is defined as the disruption of the cellular and anatomic continuity of a tissue and may be produced by physical, chemical, thermal, microbial or immunological insult to the tissues. The process of wound healing consists of integrated cellular and biochemical events leading to re-establishment of structural and functional integrity with regain of strength in injured tissues. During wound healing reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals are produced at the site of wound as a defence mechanism against invading bacteria but at high concentrations ROS can induce severe tissue damage and decreasing the healing process by damaging the cellular membranes, DNA, proteins and lipids. It has been found that many plants or plant-derived compounds possess high levels of antioxidant properties and also show wound-healing activities by scavenging these free radicals. This paper presents a review of plants with Wound healing and antioxidant activity. These are Acacia Senegal, Centellia asiatica, Curcuma longa, Ficus lutea, Plumbago indica , Wedelia trilobata , Limonia Acidissima , Sphaeranthus amaranthoides ,Morinda citrifolia and many more. So it is the need of hour to search for “natural remedies” for the treatment of wounds with novel antioxidant activity.