Exploratory study on the effectiveness of a standardized extract from Ageratina pichinchensis in patients with chronic venous leg ulcers

Abstract

The aerial parts of the species Ageratina pichinchensis, popularly known as "axihuitl", have been empirically used in Mexico for wound-healing purposes. The evaluation of an extract from A. pichinchensis (in an in vivo model) demonstrated its capacity to reduce, in a significant manner, the time required for wound healing in rodent skin. This same extract showed (in vitro) a capacity of encouraging proliferation of normal human fetal lung fibroblasts (MRC-5). This study's objective was to evaluate, in a clinical trial, the effectiveness and tolerability of the topical administration of a product elaborated with the standardized extract from the aerial parts of A. pichinchensis in patients with chronic venous leg ulcers, and to compare the effect with a control group treated with 7 % propylene glycol alginate. In this study, a total of 34 patients were included (50 % in each group). Six patients of the control group withdrew from the treatment, three of these because of lack of recovery. In the experimental group, 2 participants withdrew from the study, but none of these due to treatment or clinical-evolution reasons. The A. pichinchensis extract showed therapeutic effectiveness in one hundred percent of the patients treated with it, while the control treatment achieved this condition in 81.8 % of the control group patients. Ulcer size reduction resulted significantly higher (p < 0.010) in the group of patients administered the experimental treatment, which allows us to assure that the A. pichinchensis standardized extract is effective in the treatment of chronic venous leg ulcers and, compared with the 7 % propylene glycol alginate formula, achieves a significant reduction of the time required for the ulcers to heal.