Antioxidant and in vivo Wound Healing Activities of Clausena anisata

Leaves of Clausena anisata are used in many parts of West Africa including Ghana for management of wounds and other skin infections. The study was to evaluate the in vivo wound healing and antioxidant properties of ethanol leaf extract of C. anisata. The wound healing activity of ethanol leaf extract of the C. anisata was investigated using excision wound model. The antioxidant activity was determined using 2, 2-diphenyl-1 picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging method. For wound healing activity, concentrations of 7 and 10% w/w aqueous cream of the extract were used. The progression of wound healing was determined by the periodic assessment of the contraction of excision wounds and histological studies. The leaf extract cream (7% w/w) was found to significantly increase the rate of wound contraction (p<0.001) at days 13 to 19 compared to the untreated. The n-propyl gallate used as the reference antioxidant agent had IC50 of 4.19 μg/mL and that of the ethanol extract was 32.9 μg/mL. These findings may justify the medicinal uses of C. anisata for the management of wounds.