Infected wound healing and antimicrobial effects of Chenopodium ambrosioides and Mitracarpus scaber

Abstract

Chenopodium ambrosioides Linn. (Chenopdiaceae) and Mitracarpus scaber Zucc. (Rubiaceae) are herbal medicinal plants. They are commonly used in Togolese folk medicine to treat skin infections such as infected wounds, dermatoses, and scabies. The aim of this work was to evaluate the wound healing and antimicrobial properties of the two plants. Firstly, we evaluated the infected wound healing property of the two plants. We induced and treated infected wound in Wistar rats as follows. We inserted a sterile needle under the skin of the animal previously anesthetized by ether. Along the needle, we made an incision of 2 cm of length. The wound was infected with 24 hours colonies of P.aeruginosa. One infected wound was created per animal. 0.5 g of ointments prepared form C. ambrosioides and M. scaber leaf extracts, was applied twice a day. Secondly, we conducted antimicrobial assays with extracts prepared with the leaves of the plants.
Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albcans, Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. were used in this study. Infected wound in control group healed in 12.6±0.245 days. The ointment from C. ambrosioides or M. scaber leaf extracts, significantly and respectively reduced this mean time to 07.04±0.245 (P<0.01) and 06.4±0.245 (P<0.01) days. The extracts showed antimicrobial activities against all tested strains. C. ambrosioides and M. scaber possess wound healing and antimicrobial properties. These findings support their traditional use in treatment of skin infections.

Keywords: antimicrobial activity, Chenopodium ambrosioides, Mitracarpus scaber, ointments, skin infected wounds.