Enhancing Wound Healing Potential through the Development of a Herbosomal Transdermal Patch Containing Terminalia bellerica Ethanolic Extract

Abstract

The process of wound recovery is a complex challenge, wherein the skin and the underlying tissue undergo self-repair following an injury. Wound healing comprises four fundamental stages: haemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and maturation. The leaves of Terminalia bellerica are widely employed in traditional Indian medicine for the treatment of wounds. Terminalia bellerica contains a variety of chemical constituents, including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, phenols, tannins, saponins, glycosides, sterols, amino acids, and reducing sugars such as ribose, glucose, lactose, maltose, and sucrose. This study specifically addresses the composition of Terminalia bellerica, focusing particularly on its Herbosomal formulation with potential in wound healing, along with a method for preparing a transdermal patch. Over a 16-day period, a transdermal patch (incorporating F5 composition) demonstrated a reduction in the wound area across different animal groups. Consequently, the formulation (containing F5 composition) expeditiously promotes wound healing (epithelialization time 15.52–16.21 days) and exhibits substantial similarity to the group treated with 5% povidone–iodine ointment. In comparison to existing technology, the transdermal patch (F5 composition with only 50mg of the drug) achieved complete healing in 16.86±3.22 days with 96.10±2.88% wound contraction. The results highlight a significant enhancement in bioavailability and specific wound healing activity for the prepared formulation.