Studies on wound healing potential of topical herbal formulations- do we need to strengthen study protocol?

Healing of wound is a normal biological process that occurs naturally as long as it is not obstructed by infection. Many monoherbal and polyherbal formulations have been reported to hasten/accelerate wound healing activity in freshly prepared incisional and excisional experimental wound models. In the present review, an attempt has been made to throw light on importance of microbial infection in the process of wound healing and antimicrobial activity of herbal formulations. Different herbal formulations have been reported to hasten/accelerate the process of wound healing by enhancing epitheliazation, neovascularization, formation of granulation tissue, collagen synthesis, wound contraction, tensile strength, etc. As these studies have been conducted in freshly prepared non-infected wounds, it is difficult to ascertain the wound healing potential of these formulations in absence of microbial colonization/infection and results are not justifiable because the healing is limited to non-infected wounds. It would be more appropriate to ascertain the wound healing potential and not hastening/accelerating the wound healing property of newer herbal formulations on wound healing in experimental animals in presence of colonization/infection. Hence, it is recommended to strengthen these study protocols further using suitable controls to find out the antimicrobial activities of herbal formulations and their effect on wounds colonized/infected with pathogenic microbes in significant numbers to achieve more meaningful and concrete conclusions.