Abstract

*Andrei Zbuchea, MD, PhD and Radu Albulescu, PhD Biochem

ABSTRACT

Within the therapeutic armamentarium for wound healing, this work aims to assess the qualities of an innovative natural preparation. The proposed ointment has a complex composition and is made exclusively from natural ingredients, which also has multiple actions to facilitate wound healing: extracts from nine medicinal plants (marigold, chamomile, comfrey, St. John’s wort, yarrow, burdock, plantain, mallow and oak bark), vegetable oils (sunflower, coconut and sea buckthorn), beeswax, conifer resin and volatile lavender oil. The proposed ointment was experimentally investigated in vitro and in vivo, through a preclinical pharmacological evaluation of the product, to establish basic safety issues and effectiveness: reconstituted dermal culture, in vitro pyrogenicity test, bacterial load test, cells viability test, thermal wound healing (in vivo), and determining the level of cytokines. The preparations do not show dermal toxicity, are free of endotoxin-like contaminants and of pathogenic germs, and are therefore safe for application on injured skin. Dermaplant Extract, tested in vitro on 3T3 fibroblasts demonstrated a remarkable ability to stimulate proliferation (+ 18% increase in proliferation rate). The evaluation of the “in vivo” repair effect showed a stimulation of the repair of the damaged dermal tissue, on a model of unilateral thermal injury in rats, the repair process at 6 days being accelerated by 69%. The evaluation of the level of cytokines in the serum of treated animals highlighted significant reductions in the level of proinflammatory cytokines IL1? and TNF?.