DETERMINATION OF DIABETIC WOUND HEALING, ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF Cyathula uncinulata CRUDE LEAF EXTRACT IN FRUCTOSE-INDUCED DIABETIC WISTAR RATS

Abstract

The treatment of a wound in a diabetic patient is difficult for clinicians and researchers since it often heals very slowly, due to lasting inflammation and is subject to prolonged oxidative stress. The current treatments have adverse side effects, are expensive, inaccessible and sometimes inefficient leading to death, infections, reduced quality of life and amputation. Therefore, there is a critical need for affordable, accessible and effective alternatives for diabetic wound management. C. uncinulata has been traditionally used in treatment of wounds and despite the wide spread use there is no scientific evidence to support it in the management of diabetic wounds. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the phytochemicals, antioxidant activity and Wound healing (WH) features of C. uncinulata leaves extracts in fructose-induced diabetic Wistar rats. Phytochemical screening of the methanolic leaf extract showed higher presence of a high concentration of flavonoids, alkaloids and tannins, as compared to aqueous extract; methanolic extract was selected for in vivo studies. Thirty-five male rats were randomly assigned to seven groups. Two groups received topical methanolic extract, with one group treated with a low dose of 300 mg/kg and the other with a high dose of 600 mg/kg. One group was administered Floxapen (0.2 mL/day). The remaining groups served as controls, with some receiving a vehicle treatment or no treatment at all in this case diabetic control group. The rats were induced with a specific type of injury, which was then topically treated as per the experimental design. The low dose of 300 mg/kg was considered the lower dose, while 600 mg/kg represented the higher dose in the study. In vitro, the methanolic leaf extract showed significant antioxidant activity at all tested concentrations, comparable to ascorbic acid, as well as Hydrogen Peroxide (HP) scavenging, reducing power and catalase enzyme activity (P<0.05). Additionally, the methanolic leaf extract showed significant protection of albumin against protein denaturation at higher doses. In vivo studies, rats treated with the high dose of methanolic extract exhibited faster wound contraction, with their wounds completely healed by day 21. This outcome was similar to the group treated with the standard drug Floxapen, which also showed complete wound healing by the same time point. The Kaplan-Meier curves for the healing rate demonstrated that the treated groups healed faster than the control groups. According to this study’s findings, Cyathula uncinulata had the potential as one of the natural therapeutic agents for the management of diabetic patient wounds due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and WH properties. These effects indicated that further studies need to be conducted to identify and describe the molecules that act in this way.