In Vivo Wound Healing Activity of Abrus cantoniensis Extract.

Abrus cantoniensis (Leguminosae sp.) is a traditionally used remedy for treating rheumatism, blood stasis, and internal injuries. In order to reveal a new insight of the utilization of the plant, solvent extraction by ethyl acetate (EA) was performed in order to evaluate the plant extracts' in vivo excision and incision-wound potentials with models. The contents of the EA fraction, wound healing activity, acute oral toxicity, and acute dermal toxicity were studied. As a result, the main chemical constituents of the EA fraction were alkaloids, flavonoids, and steroids. The acute oral toxicity test results and assessment of skin hypoallergenicity showed that the plant extract was safe at LD50 as high as 5000 mg/kg. Both excision and incision model tests results indicated that the EA fraction of A. cantoniensis showed a significant wound healing capacity at a concentration of 5% (v/w) (p < 0.01) as observed by the increased wound contraction, decreased epithelialization time, and increased hydroxyproline content compared to the ones of the controls. The present study showed that the EA fraction of A. cantoniensis possesses potential wound healing activities and provided recent results for the use of A. cantoniensis for wound curing.