Wound healing potential of an Indian under-utilized fruit Garcinia gummi-gutta: Evidences from in vitro and in vivo experiments

Abstract

Garcinia gummi-gutta is a native plant of Southeast Asia, commonly known as Malabar tamarind in English and Kudam puli in Tamil. In addition to utilization of dried pulp of this G. gummi-gutta fruit, traditional healers using it for wound healing, but there is no scientific piece of evidence. The main objective of the work is to investigate the wound-healing potential of G. gummi-gutta fruit using in vitro methods and in vivo excision model. Sequential extraction was done in the dried fruit pulp of G. gummi-gutta using different solvents (hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, methanol and water). Phytochemical screening and quantitative analysis results revealed the presence of high level of alkaloids (0.16 mg/mL), flavonoids (2.15 mg/mL), terpenoids (0.09 mg/mL), phytosterols (0.46 mg/mL), phenols (9.42 mg/mL) and tannins (1.27 mg/mL) in the methanol extract. Among various solvent extracts, methanol extract exhibited higher level of antioxidant (87.64% 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl scavenging, 82.86% superoxide scavenging, 19.03% hydrogen peroxide scavenging and 78.36% hydroxyl radical scavenging) and anti-inflammatory (41.67% inhibition of protein denaturation, 27.17% protease inhibition and 66.22% red blood cells membrane stabilization) properties. Liquid chromatography with mass spectroscopy and gas chromatography with mass spectroscopy analysis of methanolic extract revealed the presence of phytochemicals like Daphnoretin, Flindersine, Taxuspine-D, 3-Butenyl isothiocyanate, Cyclopentanone dimethyl hydrazone and 2-Acetyl indole. It was observed that the wound healing potential of ointment prepared from the methanolic extract of G. gummi-gutta was significantly (p < 0.05) higher (0.5 mm) than betadine treatment (0.9 mm) in Wistar rats on 11th day. Histopathalogical analysis G. gummi-gutta-treated animals exhibited a high amount of granulation tissue, microvascular density, epidermal closure and differentiation, which indicates the good wound healing capacity of the G. gummi-gutta. Thus, the present work recorded the wound healing potential of G. gummi-gutta-ointment through in vivo excision wound model in addition to proven various in vitro wound healing mechanisms.