Effects of Nigella sativa and Hypericum perforatum on wound healing

Abstract

IntroductionSkin wounds have long healing processes, and therefore they decrease the life quality of patients. The healing of wounds in a short time without any infections or scars is the desired outcome. In recent years, there have been many studies conducted on alternative treatment methods for wound healing (1-4). The studies related to wound healing aim to achieve wound healing without scar formation as well as accelerating the wound healing (4). However, studies are still ongoing to achieve optimal wound healing.From ancient times, herbal drugs have been used to treat wounds, and in many cultures their uses continue in traditional medicine. Historically, all medicinal preparations were derived from plants. Today, a significant number of drugs are developed from plants that are active against a number of diseases (5).Nigella sativa (NS) extract and its oil have antineoplastic, antibacterial, antifungal, anthelmintic, antidiabetic, and antioxidant effects, and they stimulate the immune system. These effects stem from the active compounds in the contents of NS. There are many active compounds in NS such as thymoquinone, dithymoquinone, thymol, carvacrol (volatile acids), nigellicine, nigellimine-N-oxide, nigellidine (alkaloids), and α-hedrin (triterpene) (6-8). It has been suggested that thymoquinone acts as an antioxidant and prevents membrane lipid peroxidation in tissues (9).Hypericum perforatum (HP) is used in various ways in wound healing. It is reported in the literature to have antispasmodic, sedative, antiseptic, and antidepressive effects as well as wound-healing effects (10,11). In addition, it is known to be effective against bacteria, viruses, inflammation, and pain (11,12).Today, traditional medicine is commonly used in wound healing. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of NS and HP in the form of an oil cream in concentration of 50% on wound healing in terms of clinical, biochemical, and histological aspects. Materials and methods ChemicalsNS, HP oil cream, and placebo cream were used. To prepare NS and HP oil creams, NS oil (Hel-Kim, 50 mL, Mersin, Turkey) and HP oil (Aksu Vital, 20 mL, İstanbul, Turkey) were separately mixed with equal amount of placebo cream.

Nigella sativa and Its Active Compound, Thymoquinone, Accelerate Wound Healing in an In Vivo Animal Model: A Comprehensive Review

“…All articles were published between the years 2010 and 2020. There were four types of wound investigated among the studies, namely excision wound [14,[40][41][42], diabetic ulcers [43][44][45], deep second-degree burn [46,47], and chemical burn [48].…”

“…According to wound depth, three types of wound depths were created, which were superficial partial-thickness wound [40], deep partial-thickness wound [47,48], and full-thickness wound [43,45,46]. The remaining articles [14,41,42,44] did not specify any details about the depth of wound in their studies.…”

“…Three studies used NS oil extract in which NS seeds were cold pressed to produce oil in one study [40], while the remaining two studies did not explain the process [14,48]. Four studies demonstrated NS oil cream [41,42,45,47] as their topical approach and one study demonstrated NS oil gel [43]. To fabricate NS oil cream, three studies used fixed oil [42,45,47] while the other one did not have the information [37].…”

Herbal Products in Postsurgical Wound Healing – Incision, Excision and Dead Space Wound Models

“…Data from the articles cited in the present review referred to a total of 79 plants and showed that most of these plants exerted a beneficial effect on skin wound healing. Among these herbal products, A. vera gel [16,38,55,80], C. longa fresh paste/ethanolic extract [22,23,55], and Nigella sativa seed oil and powder [59][60][61] were the most examined. A. vera gel showed significant wound healing activity in comparison to tetracycline ointment [38], soframycin ointment [55], and povidone-iodine [16] via its antibacterial mechanism of action [55].…”

“…Fresh C. longa paste [22], polyherbal formulation containing C. longa extract [23], and lotion containing its ethanolic extract [55] increased wound breaking strength, significantly reduced epithelialization, and completed the wound healing process in 15 days. N. sativa oil [59], powder [60], and cream with extract [61] increased epithelialization and granulation as well as demonstrated significant wound contraction rate via its antioxidant activity. It is worth mentioning that most analyzed studies showed the potential of the examined plants in wound healing treatment.…”