A pharmacological study on the effect of calendula officinalis extract on wound healing in animals

Abstract

Background: Calendula officinalis is one of those plants which have medicinal importance due to its flowers (HECO) has pharmacological activity the important pharmacological parameters have been less investigated properly and can be scientifically proved by reverse pharmacology. It was found of interest to evaluate these properties of extract of flowers of Calendula officinalis.Methods: Study was conducted in Albino Wistar rats. For evaluating wound healing activity Excision wound model and Incision wound mode were used containing 4 groups each. The wound contraction was studied by tracing the raw wound area on graph paper. Scar area and time for complete epithelisation were measured. The percentage of wound contraction was recorded. The differences between experimental groups were compared by ANOVA followed by Students “t” unpaired test.Results: In the excision wound healing model, 5% and 10% flowers showed a highly significant reduction in wound area as compared with control. In incision wound model, rats treated with 5% and 10% ointment of Calendula officinalis flowers extract showed highly significant increase in tensile strength as compared to control.Conclusions: It was found that the Calendula extract enhanced the wound healing in both the models as seen by increased synthesis of connective tissue especially collagen. There was a significant increase in the granuloma tissue. In both the models wound contraction and increased tensile strength was found to be statistically significant.