Wound healing activities of methanolic extracts Ocimum gratissimum leaf in Wistar rats - a preliminary study

The wound healing effect of leaf extracts of Ocimum gratissimum was investigated in adult male Wistar rats. Two groups of adult male Wistar rats, average body weight 170g, had a 2cm by 2cm square wound inflicted on the dorsolateral aspect of their trunk with Paniculus Carnosus removed. Experimental group had their wound dressed with methanolic leaf extracts of Ocimum gratissimum while control group had their wounds dressed with normal saline dressing. All animals had wound dressing done every five days; wound dimension measured and, wound morphometry assessed. Wound biopsy was done by random selection in each group on day 10 and the day of complete re-epithelisation. Routine paraffin wax processing was done, slides stained with haematoxylene and eosin for histological assessment of fibroblast count, neovascularisation and granulation tissue profile. The result revealed significant wound contraction (P<0.05) on day 10 in the experimental group (mean 73.40 +/- 3.30)cm2 compared with the control group (mean 53.50 +/- 4.32)cm2. Histology of the healed scar showed non-significant (P>0.05) decrease in the mean fibroblast count forthe experimental group (83.80 +/- 5.70) relative to fibroblast count of 90.20 +/- 17.90 in the control group. The mean blood vessel count was also non-significantly lowered (P>0.05) in the experimental group (9.20 +/- 1.20) relative to the control group (13.40 +/- 2.40). Granulation tissue histology on day 10 showed denser inflammatory infiltrate as reflected by increased cellularity in the control group relative to that of the experimental group which though appeared adequate was not as dense as the control group. Thus we suggest that the methanolic extracts of O. gratissimum could be a potential wound healing agent due to its ability to enhance wound contraction.