CLERODENDRON SPLENDEN -A POTENT AGENT FOR WOUND HEALING

Abstract

Clerodendron splendens is a well-known plant in folklore medicine for treating various skin infections and in wound healing. Based on its traditional use, this plant was evaluated for its antimicrobial, wound healing and antioxidant properties. Juice expressed from the fresh leaves and ethanol, acetone and chloroform extracts of the dried leaves, stem and root, all exhibited various degrees of antimicrobial activity against the test microorganisms with minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 0.15 to 7mg/ml. The time-kill kinetics studies conducted suggested microbistatic activity of the various extracts against these test microorganisms employed.

The extracts were topically applied twelve hourly to excision wounds created on the back of rats. Two more groups serving as the controls were also treated with 1%w/w Silver sulphurdiazine cream and the vehicle (normal saline + tween80). The extracts showed faster rate of wound contraction in the first 5 days than the controls. Higher breaking strengths were recorded, especially in the 300mg/ml treated group, suggesting the possibility of higher collagen content of the repaired tissues than in the control groups. Thus, this study provides a scientific rationale for the traditional use of this plant in the management of wounds and other infectious conditions.