Histopathologic effect of hydroalcoholic extract of berberis (Berberis vulgaris) on open wound healing in rats

Objectives: Dermal wounds are a rupture in skin tissue as the first and most important defensive organ. This event is the most prevalent skin affliction and need an immediate treatment. However there are not so many certain medications for this purpose. Thus the target of this research is to survey of berberis fruit extract (Berberis vulgaris) as a herbal drug on amendment of open wounds. Materials Methods: Seventy two male Vistar rats weigh 250gr were divided into witness and control groups with repetitions. After anesthesia 3 area of skin on top of vertebral column were cut and omitted with full thickness to fascia muscle depth. These two groups were applicated by 150mg/kg drug extract and base of ointment (eucerin) twice a day, respectively. Progress of wound repair was measured according to Cross et. al. (1995) method. In the days 1, 3, 5, 7, 14 and 21 six rats from each group were randomly catched and killed by fatal dose of anesthetic drugs for determining six different pathologic tests. At the end of the study statistical analysis were done by SPSS software.Results Conclusion: In this research the used drug effected positively on each four phase of the wound healing in control group rats. Berberis enhanced the healing process, hair growing and the time for scar to be faded. The data revealed that scars disappeared by the day fourteen in treatment group. Also as it came from the study including the photos, the area of the wound, micrographs and pathological surveys show the acceleration of healing process in the treatment group. According to our statistical findings there were no significant differences between control and treatment groups. Although it is suggested to repeat the study with more rats and different dose of the drug (The charts and also pathologic slides are available).