Metabolite profiling and wound-healing activity of Boerhavia diffusa leaf extracts using in vitro and in vivo models

Kriti Juneja; Rutusmita Mishra; Samrat Chauhan; Sumeet Gupta; Partha Roy; Debabrata Sircar

doi:10.1016/j.jtcme.2019.02.002

Metabolite profiling and wound-healing activity of Boerhavia diffusa leaf extracts using in vitro and in vivo models

J Tradit Complement Med. 2019 Feb 19;10(1):52-59. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2019.02.002. eCollection 2020 Jan.

Authors

Kriti Juneja¹, Rutusmita Mishra², Samrat Chauhan³, Sumeet Gupta³, Partha Roy², Debabrata Sircar¹

Affiliations

¹ Plant Molecular Biology Group, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India.
² Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, 247667, India.
³ Department of Pharmacology, M. M. College of Pharmacy, Maharishi Markandeshwar (Deemed to be University), Mullana, Ambala, Haryana, 133203, India.

Abstract

Boerhavia diffusa is a perennial herb belonging to the Nyctaginaceae family. This plant has been widely used in Indian traditional medicinal system to cure several human ailments. However, traditional use of this plant in the treatment and management of wounds has not been validated by any comprehensive scientific study. The present study was aimed to explore the in vitro and in vivo wound healing potential of methanol extract (ME) and chloroform extract (CE) from B. diffusa leaf and subsequent identification of the bioactive metabolites, which might be responsible for enhancement of wound healing property of the extracts. The study included in vitro cell viability and wound scratch assays as well as in vivo excision wound assays in rat models. Both ME and CE were analysed for their antioxidant properties and phenolics content. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses were performed for identification of bioactive metabolites present in the ME and CE. ME of B. diffusa leaf significantly enhanced viability and migration of human keratinocyte cells (HaCaT) as compared to the untreated and CE-treated groups. The topical application of ME of B. diffusa leaf in excision wound model significantly decreased the wound area by the 14th day (91%) as compared to control (22%) (p < 0.05). The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of caffeic acid, ferulic acid and D-pinitol as the major bioactive metabolites in ME. These results suggest that ME of B. diffusa possesses significant wound healing potential, where D-pinitol and caffeic acid served as the lead constituent metabolites responsible for the healing.

Keywords: Albino Wistar rats; Antioxidant; D-pinitol; HaCaT keratinocyte cell line; Topical ointment.