A preliminary study of cutaneous wound healing on the upper eyelid in a small Brazilian population using Rhizophora mangle-based cream.

Plants used in traditional medicine offer an affordable new alternative in tissue repair therapy. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the 5% Rhizophora mangle cream compared to the 5% dexpanthenol cream in healing open surgical wounds on the upper eyelid. A total of 18 patients were submitted to the experiment and divided into 2 groups with 9 patients each who used topically and daily 5% dexpanthenol cream (control group) or 5% R.mangle cream (intervention group) for 7 days. Clinical, morphometric and histomorphometric analyses of wounds and surgical procedures for skin removal were performed. In the morphometric analysis, all wounds treated with R.mangle and dexpanthenol creams showed complete macroscopic scars, without inflammatory signs and infection free. The skin hydration values in pre and post application periods of the cream were 43.82 ± 43.93 and 62.12 ± 67.40 respectively. The histomorphometric study showed lower values of epithelium distance in R. mangle group and higher in dexpanthenol group with significant difference between groups (p < 0.05). The R.mangle 5% cream proved to be effective in healing wounds of human upper eyelid skin with a significant improvement in epithelization compared to dexpanthenol 5% cream.

Evaluation of cytotoxicity and wound healing activity of Avicennia schaueriana in cream.

Avicennia schaueriana is found in Brazilian mangrove coast. The cytotoxicity in vitro of the Aqueous Extract of Leaves of Avicennia schaueriana (AELAs) and the healing activity of the plant in cream on mice skin wounds were evaluated in this study. The cytotoxic evaluation was performed on Vero cells. The healing activity was evaluated on mice treated during 5, 10 and 15 days with cream at 5%, solution of sodium chloride at 0.9% and dexpanthenol in cream at 5%. The extract did not show cytotoxicity, but showed mitogenic activity (100µg/ml). In morphometric analysis, the percentage of wound contraction after 10 days was higher in dexpanthenol group (93.41%). In 15 days, the lowest percentage of contraction was observed in the dexpanthenol group (94.41%) and the highest in the AELAs cream group (98.50%). In histomorphometry the dexpanthenol showed the lowest length of re-epithelialization in 10 days. In 15 days, the AELAs cream group showed 100% of re-epithelialization. The number of fibroblasts found in AELAs cream group was higher than the saline solution in 10 days. In 15 days, AELAs cream group maintained a higher amount of fibroblasts when compared to the others. A. schaueriana did not show cytotoxicity. Furthermore, topical application of AELAs cream decreased the wound area, stimulated the re-epithelialization and increased the number of fibroblasts. The species A. schaueriana could become a topical treatment in tissue repair process.