Purpose: To formulate and optimize a herbal gel of Aloe vera extract containing Carbopol 934 as gelling agent and to investigate the effects of topical application of Carbopol 934 gel containing Aloe vera extract on the healing of skin wounds surgically induced in Wistar rats.
Materials and methods: Different concentrations of viscosity enhancer Carbopol 934 were tried and finally gel that showed good spreadability and consistency was selected for wound healing property of herbal gel of Aloe vera. Excision wound model was used for the study.
Results: The optimized gel was evaluated for different physicochemical properties and wound healing property. Differences in wound healing were observed between the various treatments when compared to the control group. Tissue hyperplasia was lower in the control group compared to the other treated groups. In animals group treated with gel, 80.14% healing was observed up to 14(th) day. While in untreated group I (control) animals showed 52.68% healing of wounds on 14(th) day. On the other hand, control group animals also showed inflammation and pus formation up to 5(th) day of study, while treated animals did not showed any observable inflammation and pus formation.
Conclusion: Results shows prepared gel has promising effect on the wound healing process.
Keywords: Aloe vera; spreadability; viscosity; wound healing.