Effect of Michelia champaca Linn flowers on burn wound healing in wistar rats

Plants are a source of large variety of potent drugs to alleviate suffering from disease. In traditional medicine the plant Michelia champaca (M. champaca) is widely used in the treatment of inflammation, dysmenorrhoea, fever, ulcers, wounds and skin diseases. In this study ethanolic extract of M. champaca flowers were used to evaluate its burn wound healing activity in rats. Rate of wound contraction and period of epithelialisation were taken as parameters. In the burn wound model, oral and topical administration of M. champaca showed significant improvement in the rate of wound contraction on the 16^th day as compared to control but not with standard. Oral administration and topical application of M. champaca significantly (p=0.005 and p< 0.01) reduced the period of epithelialisation as compared to control in the burn wound model. In the dexamethasone suppressed burn wound model, wound contraction rate was improved significantly by topical (p<0.0001) and oral (p<0.006) administration of M.champaca. Moreover, dexamethasone suppressed epithelialisation was significantly reversed by topical (p<0.0001) and oral (p<0.001) administration of M. champaca. The present study gives the evidence for burn wound healing activity of M. champaca.