Cleome viscosa L. (Cleomaceae) is an important
traditional medicine of the Indian-Ayurvedic and Chinese-medicine system documented for
rheumatic arthritis,
hypertension,
malaria,
neurasthenia, and wound healing. The plant is also known as Asian spider flower and is distributed throughout the greater part of India. The present study explored the wound healing property of C. viscosa
methanol extract (CvME) and its related mechanism using Wistar rat cutaneous excision
wound model.
Wound contraction rate,
hydroxyproline quantification, and histopathological examination of
wound granulation tissue were performed. The healing potential was comparatively assessed with a reference
gentamicin sulfate hydrogel (0.01% w/w). Western blot for COL3A1, bFGF, and Smad-2, Smad-3, Smad-4, and Smad-7 was performed with 7-day postoperative granulation tissue. Results revealed that the topical application of CvME (2.5% w/w) significantly accelerated the
wound contraction rate (95.14%, 24 postoperative days), increased the
hydroxyproline content (3.947 mg/100 mg tissue), and improved histopathology of
wound tissue as compared to control groups. Western blot analysis revealed that CvME significantly upregulated the expression of COL3A1 and bFGF and increased the Smad-mediated
collagen production in granulation tissue. These findings suggest that C. viscosa promoted the
wound repair process by attenuating the Smad-mediated
collagen production in
wound granulation tissue.