Assessment of the wound healing property of aqueous extract of Stevia rebaudiana: An ethno medicinal plant

Ethnomedicinal plants are considered recent resources for producing components that could treat wounds. Stevia rebaudiana is a native plant in Iran, which the plant has been used as an anti-inammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antiviral, and antidiabetic agent in Iran. In this study, the authors describe the property of aqueous extract of S. rebaudiana on wound healing markers in Sprague-Dawley male rats. Full-thickness excisional wounds (2×2 cm) was induced on the back of 32 rats. In this study, rats were randomly divided into four main groups (n=8), untreated (control) and treated with 1ml basal cream, 1ml tetracycline (3%), and 1ml S. rebaudiana aqueous extract 10% for 10 days. Animals of each group were euthanized at 10 days post-injury (DPI) and wounds were assessed through gross and histopathological analyses. Treated animals with S. rebaudiana demonstrated a considerable decrease in the wound area during the experiment compared to control, basal cream, and tetracycline groups. Parameters such as healing tissue alignment and epithelialization indicated substantial changes when compared to other groups. Moreover, treatment with S. rebaudiana decreased the number of wound surface area, lymphocytes and macrophages and it increased the number of blood vessels and fibrocytes compared to other groups at 10 days. Thus, the present research shows the wound healing effect of the S. rebaudiana, suggesting to use as a therapeutic supplement. Additional in vivo researches and clinical trials would be needed to justify.