ABSTRACT

A wound is a type of injury which occurs relatively quickly in which skin is torn, cut or punctured (an open wound) or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion (a closed wound). Wound healing is the process of repair that follows injury to the skin and other soft tissues. Following injury, an inflammatory response occurs and the cells below the dermis begin to increase collagen (connective tissue) production. Later, the epithelial tissue (the outer skin) is regenerated. There are three stages to the process of wound healing: inflammation, proliferation and remodeling or maturation. The wound-healing efficacy of the crude extract of Ocimum gratissimum leaf was evaluated in excision wound models. The parameters studied included; rate of wound contraction, period of complete epithelialisation in days, dermal toxicity and tensile strength of the excision wound. The means of wound area measurements among treatment animals at different time intervals were compared using one way ANOVA and Post hoc test. The level of significance among the means was placed at P<0.05. A significant wound healing efficacy was observed at 100% concentration, better than the Cicatrin wound healing effect. At the reconstituted concentrations of 25% and 50%, their efficacies were comparable to the reference drug used. The Ocimum gratissimum leaf crude extract at different reconstitutions was found to be very safe as no dermal toxicity or rash was recorded. The result showed that O. gratissimum possesses significant wound-healing activity which was evidenced by decrease in the period of epithelialisation, increase in the rate of wound contraction and skin-breaking tensile strength. It has been established that O. gratissimum contains alkaloids (anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties) as well as antimicrobial properties. These may be the lead to their wound healing effects. In conclusion, the use of O. gratissimum leaf crude extract at 100%, as a potent wound healing herb which reduces wound healing time and prevents the activities of micro- organism associated wound contamination with no dermal toxicity is hereby recommended. However, further studies need to be carried out to further expound the mechanism of action of O. gratissimum in wound healing as well as its systemic effect on animals