Lepidium
sativum
L. (Garden cress/Hab
El Rashad) (Ls), family Brassicaceae, has considerable importance
in traditional medicine worldwide because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
activities. Ls fruits were used in Ayurvedic medicines as a useful
drug for injuries, skin, and eye diseases. The aim of this study
was to examine the effectiveness of the total ethanol extract (TEE)
and polysaccharide (Poly) of Ls seeds loaded on poly(vinyl alcohol)
(PVA) nanofibers (NFs) as a wound healing dressing and to correlate
the activity with the constituents of each. TEE and Poly were phytochemically
analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Qualitative analysis proved
the presence of phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannins, sterols, triterpenes,
and mucilage. Meanwhile, quantitative determinations were carried
out spectrophotometrically for total phenolic and total flavonoid
contents. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for TEE identified
15 phenolic acids and flavonoid compounds, with gallic acid and catechin
as the majors. Separation, purification, and identification of the
major compounds were achieved through a Puriflash system, column Sephadex
LH20, and spectroscopic data (
1
H,
13
C NMR, and
UV). Eight compounds (gallic acid, catechin, rutin, kaempferol-3-
O
-rutinoside, quercetin-3-
O
-rhamnoside,
kaempferol-3-
O
-rhamnoside, quercetin, and kaempferol)
were obtained. Gas–liquid chromatography (GLC) analysis for
Poly identified 11 compounds, with galactose being the main. The antioxidant
activity for both extracts was measured by three different methods
based on different mechanisms: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH),
ferric reducing ability of plasma (FRAP), and 3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic
acid (ABTS). TEE has the highest effectiveness as an antioxidant agent
with IC
50
82.6 ± 8.35 μg/mL for DPPH and 772.47
and 758.92 μM Trolox equivalent/mg extract for FRAP and ABTS,
respectively. The PVA nanofibers (NFs) for each sample were fabricated
by electrospinning. The fabricated NFs were characterized by SEM and
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); the results revealed
successful encapsulation of TEE and Poly in the prepared NFs. Moreover,
the swelling index of TEE in the prepared NFs shows that it is the
most appropriate for use as a wound dressing. Cytotoxicity studies
indicated a high cell viability with IC
50
216 μg/mL
and 1750 μg/mL for TEE and Poly, respectively. Moreover, the
results revealed that nanofibers possess higher cell viability compared
to solutions with the same sample quantities: 9-folds for TEE and
4-folds for Poly of amount 400 μg. The
in vitro
wound healing test showed that the TEE nanofibers performed better
than Poly nanofibers in accelerating wound healing, with 90% for TEE,
more than that for the Poly extract (82%), after 48 h. These findings
implied that the incor...
