Wound-Healing Activity of Some Species of Euphorbia L.

Some species of Euphorbia have been used as medicinal plants to treat wounds, and skin diseases, around the world. The solvents n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol were used successively to prepare extracts of the aerial parts of E. characias subsp. wulfenii, E. helioscopia, E. macroclada, E. seguieriana subsp. seguieriana, and E. virgata. Linear incision, circular excision wound models and the hydroxyproline assay method were used to assess the wound-healing activity. The inhibition of the increase in capillary permeability induced by acetic acid was used to assay the anti-inflammatory activity. The methanol extract of the aerial parts of E. characias subsp. wulfenii showed statistically significant wound-healing activity with 43.03% tensile strength for the linear incision wound model and a 65.24% reduction in the area of the wound by day 10 for the circular excision model. The tissue treated with this extract was found to contain 35.47 µg/mg of hydroxyproline. The methanol extract of E. characias subsp. wulfenii inhibited inflammation induced by acetic acid with a value of 34.74%. The results showed that the aerial parts of E. characias subsp. wulfenii possess wound-healing and anti-inflammatory activities on different models.