Wound healing potential of Sambucus ebulus L. leaves and isolation of an active component, quercetin 3-O-glucoside

The leaves of Sambucus ebulus L. are used in Turkish folk medicine for treatment of high fever, rheumatic pains, snake bites and wounds.

Four different solvent extracts by using n-hexane, diethyl ether, ethyl acetate and methanol were prepared from the leaves of Sambucus ebulus in order to investigate the claimed wound healing activity in vivo and isolation of active component(s) from the active extract through the bioassay-guided fractionation procedures.

Linear incision and circular excision wound models on rats and mice were employed. The methanol extract was fractionated by successive chromatographic techniques. Wound healing activity of each fraction was investigated following the bioassay-guided fractionation procedures. Moreover, the tissue samples were examined histopathologically.

Significant wound healing activity was observed for the ointment prepared with methanol extract at 1% concentration. The methanol extract treated groups of animals showed 84.3% contraction in circular excision model, which was close to contraction value of the reference drug Madecassol (100%). On the other hand, a significant increase (43.7%) in the wound tensile strength was determined with the same extract on incision wound model. Subfractions showed significant but reduced wound healing activity on both in vivo wound models. A flavonoid derivative "quercetin 3-O-glucoside" was isolated and determined as one of the active component of active final subfraction. The results of histopathological examination supported the outcome of linear incision and circular excision wound models.

The experimental data revealed that the methanolic extract of Sambucus ebulus leaves displayed remarkable wound healing activity.