Medicinal Chemistry

Wound Healing and Anti-Infective Properties of Myrianthus arboreus and Alchornea cordifolia

Abstract

Christian Agyare, Angela Owusu- Ansah, Paul Poku Sampane Ossei, John Antwi Apenteng and Yaw Duah Boakye

Myrianthus arboreus P. Beauv. (Cecropiaceae) and Alchornea cordifolia (Schum. & Thonn.) Muel. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae) are tropical plants used for the treatment of ailments such as diarrhoea, malaria, boils, dysentery, wounds and skin infections. The study investigated the antimicrobial, antioxidant and wound healing properties of methanol leaf extract of M. arboreus (MLMA), aqueous (AqLAC) and ethanol leaf extracts (ELAC) of A. cordifolia. The antimicrobial activity of the extracts was examined using the agar diffusion and micro-dilution methods against Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 4853, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Bacillus subtilis NTCC 10073 and clinical strain of Candida albicans. Antioxidant property of the extracts was determined by DPPH method and wound healing property of the extracts determined using excision wound model. MLMA exhibited activity against S. aureus, B.subtilis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans with MIC values of 8.0, 6.0, 8.0, 10.0 and 6.0 mg/mL, respectively. ELAC showed good antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, B.subtilis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa and C. albicans with MICs of 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, 4.0 and 4.0 mg/mL respectively; and AqACL had MICs of 2.5, 3.0, 10.0, 4.0 and 3.0 mg/mL, respectively. The IC50 of MLMA, AqACL and ELAC were 2.68, 0.79, 0.78 μg/mL respectively. The extracts (5% w/w AqACL and 10% w/w MMAL extract creams) showed potent wound healing capacity with better wound closure (p<0.05) at day 1 and day 9 (p<0.001) compared with untreated wounds. Histological investigations showed enhanced wound tissue proliferation, fibrosis and re-epithelization compared with the untreated wound tissues. Phytochemical screening of extracts revealed the presence of tannins, alkaloids, glycosides, terpenoids and flavonoids. The biological activities of the extracts from the two plants may justify their uses in treatment for microbial infections and wounds.