Therapeutic potential of ointment containing methanol extract of Lamium album L. on cutaneous wound healing in rats

Proper wound management which improves the quality of life and reduces patient costs is required. Lamium album L. has been used in traditional medicine to heal skin wounds and recent studies show anti-inflammatory, haemostatic and antimicrobial properties of this plant.

The effect of the ointment containing methanol extract of L. album aerial parts was evaluated on the full-thickness wound healing in rat model.

Thirty-two Wistar rats (250-300 g) were used to be created a square full-thickness wound on the dorsal cervical area and randomly divided into four groups: I; control, II; ointment base, III; 1 % phenytoin cream and IV; 5 % L. album ointment. Wound size for determination of the percent of wound healing was measured on days 3, 5, 7 and 12 of the experiment. The excisional biopsies were evaluated histopathologically on the 12th day of treatment according to the Abramov score method.

The herbal ointment significantly increased fibroblast maturation, collagen deposition and neovascularization compared to the control group. The wound healing rate was significantly increased in the group treated with L. album ointment, same as phenytoin group, on days 3, 7 and 12. Based on the spectrophotometric analysis, the extract contains phenol and flavonoid compounds.

It seems that L. album could be considered as a new candidate for further studies in the field of wound healing.