IntroductionStrychnos camptoneura is an essential ethnomedicinal plant of Congolese traditional medicine known for its therapeutic ingredients to prevent, mitigate or treat any diseases or conditions related to skin wounds. The aim was to investigate toxicity and wound healing effects of the S. comptoneura seeds ethanolic extract (EE) using the keratinocytes HaCaT line and dermal fibroblast cells. MethodsThe keratinocytes and fibroblasts cells used in this study were treated with 0.5–500 μg/ml of the plant extract. Cell viability was assessed by MTT colorimetric assay. The wound-healing effects were evaluated using the wound cellular method by scraping in a 2D environment. ResultsLow toxicity was observed with the pure extract at a concentration of 1,56 µg/ml. The cell viability was superior at 70%. Regardless of the cell line type used in vitro, the extract exhibited significant wound healing effects shown by the increasing level of growth factors especially in comparison with the non-treated control group. The TGF-β and TGF-α values at 72 h for dermal fibroblast cells were: (TGF-β) EE 985.2 ± 66.4 pg/ml, control 667.1 ± 26.9 pg/ml; (TGF-α) EE 161.3 ± 11.6 pg/ml, control 98.5 ± 7.8 pg/ml. Discussion / ConclusionThe results demonstrated that the seeds of S. camptoneura ethanolic extract possessed wound healing activity influenced by an up-regulation in growth factors, which could be explained by the presence of flavonoids. These results could constitute a scientific basis for using S. camptoneura in traditional medicine.