Evaluation of the Wound Healing Activity of Chenopodium botrys Leaves Essential Oil in Rats (A Short-Term Study)

Chenopodium botrys (CB) is a native plant in Iran which has been used as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral agent in traditional medicine of Iran. In this study, the authors describe the effects of essential oil of CB on cutaneous wound healing markers in Sprague-Dawley male rats. The results of GC-MS indicated that the most frequently found chemical constituents in CB essential oil were -Eudesmol, Epi--muurolol, and Cubenol. Full-thickness excisional wounds (2x2 cm) were induced on the back of 24 rats. In this study, rats were randomly divided into four main groups (n=6), including untreated (control), treated with 1 ml basal cream (Placebo), treated with 1 ml tetracycline (3 %), and treated with 1 ml CB essential oil (6 %) for 10 days. The animals of each group were euthanized at 10 days post-injury (DPI), and wounds were evaluated by gross, histometrical and histomorphological analyses. In gross study, the animals treated with CB demonstrated a considerable decrease in the wound area during the experiment, compared to control, basal cream, and tetracycline groups (p<0.01). Parameters such as alignment of the healing tissue, re-epithelialization, and epithelial formation in CB treated group showed a significant increase, compared to other groups. In addition, treatment with CB decreased the wound surface area and the number of lymphocytes and neutrophils and increased the number of blood vessels, ratio of collagen to total and ratio of collagen to cell, in comparison with control and basal cream groups (p<0.01). Thus, the present research indicates the cutaneous wound healing activity of CB, suggesting it to be used as a therapeutic supplement.