The Healing Effect of Licorice on Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infected Burn Wounds in Experimental Rat Model

Burn is still one of the most devastating injuries in emergency medicine while improvements in wound healing knowledge and technology have resulted into development of new dressings. This study was undertaken to evaluate the healing effect of licorice in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infected burn wounds of experimental rat model. One hundred and twenty female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly allocated to 4 equal groups. Group A received silver sulfadiazine ointment, Group B received 10% licorice extract and Group C was considered as control group and received gel base as the base of medication. Group D did not receive any medication and just underwent burn injury. A standard 3rd degree burn wound was produced by a hot plate with similar size about 20% of total body surface area (TBSA) and at identical temperature. After 24 h of burn production, 108 colony forming units (CFU) of toxigenic strains of P. aeruginosa (PA 103) were inoculated subcutaneously into the burnt area. After 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 days of therapy, the animals were sacrificed and burn areas were macroscopically examined and histologically evaluated. Decrease in size of the burn wounds, in inflammation and re-epithelialization were poor in groups B-D. Infection to P. aeruginosa was still visible in groups B-D but was absent in Group A. The mean histological score, tensile strength, maximum stress, yield strength and stiffness in groups B-D were lower compared with Group A. Licorice extract in 10% concentration was shown not to be effective in healing of P. aeruginosa infected burn wounds.