ALLEVIATION EFFECT OF VENTILAGO CALYCULATA AGAINST DEXAMETHASONE DELAYED WOUND HEALING

Suppression of wound repair is a challenge for patients and healthcare workers globally. Excision and incision wounds were created on Wistar albino rats on the back of the experimental animals. The rats were categorized into seven groups (n = 6). The study aimed to determine the effect of topical administration of successive extracts of Ventilago calyculata (stem bark) against dexamethasone-suppressed wound healing. The rats of Group I (normal – given saline and wounds covered with hydrogel base); Group II (positive control was given dexamethasone (1 mg/kg/body weight) intraperitoneally (10 days) and wounds covered with SSDee Ultra cream); Group III (untreated was given dexamethasone (1 mg/kg/body weight) intraperitoneally (10 days) and wounds covered with hydrogel base; Group IV-VII (treatment groups were given dexamethasone intraperitoneally (10 days) (1mg/kg/body weight) and wounds covered with F1, F2, F3, and F4 respectively. Excision and incision wounds were inflicted on the next day of dexamethasone dosing. At the end of the 30-day treatment period, wound contraction, epithelisation period, hydroxyproline content, tensile strength, and histological changes during wound healing were assessed in rats. The statistical analysis showed that in excision and incision wound models, all the preparations exhibited significant (p<0.01) wound healing efficiency as compared to the untreated. Among all the treatment groups, aqueous extract one revealed maximum wound repair potential. In light of our finding that topical treatment with F4 accelerated the wound repair in the dexamethasone-treated group. We propose that treatment with F4 is a therapeutically beneficial method of decelerating wound retardation by dexamethasone intake.