Planimetric and Biomechanical Study of Local Effect of Pulegone on Full Thickness Wound Healing in Rat

Abstract

Background: Pulegone as principal component of essential oil, reported to have anti-bacterial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The present study was aimed to evaluate wound healing activity of pulegone in a rat model.

Method: Forty rats were used for excisional and incisional wound healing models. For each model twenty male white Wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (n = 4) of control (CG), Sham surgery, E1, E2 and E3. Wound size, hydroxyproline content of wound and biomechanical testing were assessed.

Result: In E2 animals, the wound size was reduced earlier than in E1 and E2 groups (P = 0.035). However, time had significant effect on wound contraction of all wounds. Hydroxyproline contents in the groups CG, sham surgery, E1, E2 and E3 were found to be 51.25 ± 3.40, 58.41 ± 4.62, 68.59 ± 3.53, 86.32 ± 3.18, and 74.26 ± 4.73 mg g^-1, respectively. Hydroxyproline contents were increased significantly in E2 compared to E1 and E3 which implied more collagen deposition compared to other experimental groups (P = 0.001). The biomechanical indices, maximum stored energy, stiffness, ultimate strength and yield strength obtained for E2 group were significantly higher than those obtained for E1 and E2 groups (P = 0.002).

Conclusion: The pulegone showed a reproducible wound healing potential in rats.

Keywords: biomechanics; cis-isopulegone; planimertic; wound healing.

Figure 1

Photograph was taken immediately after wounding by a digital camera while a ruler was placed near the wound and the area was analysed by Measuring Tool of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro Extended software (Adobe Systems Inc, San Jose, CA, USA)

Figure 2

The representative photographs of wounds on day 15 show wound area in the experimental groups