Wound-healing activity and quantification of bioactive compounds from Derris scandens extract

Abstract

Derris scandens (DS) is a Thai herbal medicine used to relieve musculoskeletal pain. It has been found as a single crude medication, ethanolic extract, and compounded herbal recipe for oral administration in pharmacies across the country. Due to its medicinal benefits and enriched phytochemicals, researchers are now drawn to examine the new pharmacological effects of this plant to increase its usage in complementary medicines. The purpose of this research was to investigate the wound-healing properties of the plant's ethanolic extracts as well as their active chemical composition. The extracts (both 50% and absolute ethanol) prepared by Soxhlet extraction were examined for cytotoxicity and wound-healing activity using human skin fibroblast cells, and the active chemical contents in the extracts were analyzed further using the HPLC method. For this study, genistein and lupeol compounds were selected as chemical markers. In the concentration range of 0.0001–1 mg/mL, all extracts had no cytotoxic effects on the examined cells, and 1 mg/mL of both ethanolic extracts was effective for wound closure in a scratch assay. The phytochemicals genistein and lupeol were found to be 0.0332% and 0.0588% (w/w) in the 50% ethanolic extract, respectively, and 0.0309% and 0.3472% (w/w) in the absolute ethanolic extract. The ability of DS extracts containing these compounds on in vitro wound-healing activity was demonstrated in this study.

Keywords

• derris scandens
• genistein
• lupeol
• scratch assay
• wound healing