Euphorbia honey and garlic: Biological activity and burn wound recovery

Abstract

Currently, chronic wounds and microbial resistance to antibiotics have led to search new healing agents. Combinations of natural products are widely practiced in traditional medicine and exhibited synergistic activity with increased efficacy in treating several pathologies. This study assays the antioxidant, synergistic antimicrobial and burn wound healing activities of Euphorbia honey and Allium sativum (garlic). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of each natural product was determined against microorganisms commonly found in wound infections. The synergistic antimicrobial effect was assessed by mixing different concentrations of honey and garlic extract below their relative MICs. Subsequently, the antioxidant activity, total phenolic (TPC) and flavonoid (TFC) contents of both natural products and a selected mixture of them were evaluated. Efficacy of that mixture was also evaluated as topical application on male and female Wistar rats skin burn wound, compared to Euphorbia honey and two conventional treatments. Results showed that the mixture honey–A. sativum has synergistic antimicrobial effect against all tested strains. Besides, A. sativum presented higher antioxidant activity along with higher TPC and TFC compared to honey and their mixture. However, the mixture showed higher wound healing activity reflected by shorter epithelialization and wound contraction time, as well as, better histological recovery of the treated tissues. Our results also showed that burn wound healing is not affected by gender. Our findings support the idea of combining natural products as an effective therapy.