Study of wound healing activity of different formulations of Nigella Sativa seed extracts and its active constituents

Abstract

The seeds of Nigella sativa Linn. (Fam. Ranunculaceae), commonly known as newlineblack cumin, have been traditionally used in the Middle East and Southeast Asian newlinecountries to treat ailments including asthma, bronchitis, rheumatism and related newlineinflammatory diseases, to increase milk production in nursing mothers, to promote newlinedigestion and to fight parasitic infections. It has been used to treat skin conditions newlinesuch as wounds and eczema (Padhye et al., 2008). Various crude and purified newlinecomponents of the seeds were reported to exhibit multifarious pharmacologic actions newlinelike antihistaminic (Chakravarty, 1993), antihypertensive (Zaoui et al., 2000), newlinehypoglycemic (Al-Hader et al., 1993), anti-inflammatory (Al-Ghamdi, 2001), antineoplastic newline(Worthen et al., 1998), antifungal (Khan et al., 2003), antibacterial (El- newlineFatatry, 1975), antioxidant (Burits and Bucar, 2000), etc. Antimicrobial agents arrest newlinethe growth or destroys the microbial organisms in the wound. Inflammation will not newlinestop until the wound becomes sterile. newlineInflammation plays roles in fighting infection and induces the proliferation newlinephase and it is a necessary part of wound healing process. However, inflammation newlinecan lead to tissue damage if it lasts too long (Midwood et al., 2004). Thus the newlinereduction of inflammation is frequently a goal in therapeutic settings after the wound newlinebecome sterile by anti-microbial action. Thymoquinone is a potent inhibitor ofThus the above three broad actions, namely, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory newlineand antioxidant effects raise the expectation of obtaining appreciable wound healing newlineeffect with the oil, extracts or active constituents of Nigella sativa seeds. In majority newlineof the reports of pharmacologic and therapeutic activities of Nigella sativa, the seed newlineoil, its extracts or active constituents were administered orally as oil (El-Saleh et al., newline2004) or by intra-peritoneal injections (Hajhashemi et al., 2004). Norwood prepared newlinea sustained release delivery system (Norwood et al., 2007) of thymoquinone to study newlineits effect in colon cancer.