ABSTRACT

Wound healing is a natural process that enables tissue repair after an injury while inflammationis a pathophysiological response of living tissue to injuries. To shorten the duration andminimize associated complications of wounds, wounds are treated with medications. Currentlythere is a growing interest in the use of traditional wound dressing agents such as plant extracts.One plant used traditionally in wound treatment is Ceiba pentendra. In view of its use in woundcare, we investigated the wound healing activities of whole extract and fractions of Ceibapentendra extract using excision and incision wound models while the Anti-inflammatoryactivities of the whole extract and fractions was investigated using paw edema and cotton pelletsmodel. Excision wounds were created, and treated with ointments prepared from Ceibapentendra, incision wounds were also created in rats with both treated topically with preparationsof extract and fractions with the wound healing activities of ointment assessed by rates of woundcontraction and epithelialization. Anti-inflammatory activities were assessed by treating withextract and fractions orally. Ceiba pentendra ointments shows significantly (p < 0.05)accelerated wound healing with CPE-45% ointment having the highest percentage woundcontraction and rate of epithelialization, with wound healing effects being seen from day 4(20.30%) with total healing occurring at day 20 (100%). In excision wound healing activitiesinvolving the fractions. All fractions showed significantly (p<0.05) accelerated wound healing,with HXCP-30% being the most active with wound healing effects seen at day 4 (22.91%) andtotal healing occurring at the 16th day (100%).Wound breaking strengths in incision woundmodels involving the extract, significant (p<0.05) was seen at CPE-45% with other dosesshowing a non-significant effects. In incision wound model involving fractions the woundbreaking strength showed significant with HXCP-30% and BNCP-30%. Anti-inflammatoryeffects using cotton-pellets showed that granuloma tissues formed in the extract treated groupswere significantly (p < 0.05) higher than those of the control group, the significant was seen withCPE-200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg. Anti-inflammatory effects using cotton-pellets showed thatgranuloma tissues formed in the fractions treated groups were significantly (p < 0.05) higher thanthose of the control group, the significant was seen with CPE-200 mg/kg and 400 mg/kg. Theextracts showed significant anti-inflammatory activities after 2 h with maximum percentageinhibition of 60.00% seen at the sixth hour at 400 mg/kg dose level. Nevertheless inhibition wasstill observed at six hours after administration at all dose level. In paw oedema model involvingvarious fractions, a significant inhibition (P<0.05) was seen with butanol fraction at all doselevels, with percentage inhibition of 13.68% occurring at 1 h for BNCP-200 mg/kg andpercentage inhibition of 31.25%, at the fifth h for BNCP-100 mg/kg. There was a dose dependentinhibition for the hexane fractions; hence inhibition was seen at 200 mg/kg at the fourth hourwith percentage inhibition of 31.25%, while no effect was seen with HXCP-100 mg/kg. Theethylacetate fraction also showed significant inhibition at all dose level starting at the third hourfor EACP-100 mg/kg with percentage inhibition of 21.05% and the fourth hour for EACP-200mg/kg with percentage of 22.22%. Maximum percentage inhibition was seen of 46.15% wasseen at HXCP- 200 mg/kg, EACP-100 mg/kg and BNCP-200 mg/kg. The results obtainedshowed that Ceiba pentendra has good wound healing and antibacterial activities. These findingsvalidate the use of this plant in traditional medicine for treatment of wounds.1CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTIONA wound refers to an injury to the skin or underlying tissues or organs (Agyare et al., 2013).Dermal wounds are often caused by surgery, trauma, and chemicals or as a result of diseases(Raina et al., 2008; Agyare et al., 2013). Intentionally created dermal wounds can be incisional,whereby the wound is brought about by surgically cutting into the skin with a scalpel or excisionwound created when a part of the skin is cut off (Waldron and Trevor, 1993). The process of tissuerepair after an insult to the tissue (wound) is called ‘wound healing’ (Nguyen et al., 2009). Woundhealing is an intricate process in which usually the skin repairs itself. The process involves fouroverlapping phases: haemostasis (ceasation of bleeding), inflammation, proliferation, andremodeling (Nguyen et al., 2009; Pandith et al., 2013). Inflammation is a pathophysiologicalresponse of living tissue to injuries that leads to the local accumulation of plasmic fluid and bloodcells. The complex events and mediators involved in the inflammatory reaction can induce,maintain or aggravate many diseases (Shukla et al., 2010). However, studies have been continuingon inflammatory diseases and the side effects of currently available anti-inflammatory drugs posea major problem during their clinical uses. Therefore development of newer and more substantialanti-inflammatory drugs with lesser side effects is necessary (Shukla et al., 2010).A major problem with wounds is the high risk of infection; hence, if an agent active against thesemicroorganisms causing the infection is used in the healing process, it will then help to reduce therisk of infection and the overall time for wound healing can be reduced significantly(Irvine, 1961). Bacteria colonize wounds within 48 h after injury and bacteria suchas Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus spp may cause infection2

and this may prolong inflammatory phase of wound healing (Irvine, 1961).Therefore