An in vitro ethnopharmacological study on Prangos ferulacea: a wound healing agent

Introduction: Traditionally Prangos ferulacea root is being used as an effective wound healing agent especially for pus-filled wounds both in human and stocks in the western north of Iran. Regarding the subject we decided to study P. ferulacea roots essential oil (PFE) for its antimicrobial and wound healing activities.
Methods: The in vitro wound healing activity of PFE was evaluated in the mouse fibroblast cell line L929 using MTT assay of cell viability and cytotoxicity indices. Scratch assay as an in vitro model of wound healing assay was also conducted in this study. Moreover, the type I collagen content was used as an indicator of progress in wound healing process using Sircol collagen assay. Besides, PFE was subjected to GC/MS to identify the chemical constituents, and antimicrobical property was also evaluated against S. aureus, S. epidermidis, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, S. paratyphi and C. albicans using agar dilution method.
Results: GC/MS analysis showed that the monoterpene hydrocarbones dominated in PFE, amounting to a total percentage of 95.1% with the major constituents: β-Phellandrene (32.1%), m-Tolualdehyde (26.2%), and δ-3-carene (25.8%). PFE inhibited the growth of S. aureus and P. aeruginusa with the MIC value of 20 µg/mL. In addition, at the second day of treatment, PFE at concentrations of 4 and 16 µg/mL significantly (P<0.001) enhanced the migration rate of L929 cells by 87.05±2.4 and 63.5±0.08 %, respectively. Moreover, the collagen production by L929 cells was increased greatly (P<0.001).
Conclusion: It is proposed that the excellent antimicrobial activity along with the significant increase of migration rate and collagen production by fibroblast cells might be associated with the high content and synergistic effect of the monoterpens, corroborating the traditional usage of this plant as a wound healing agent.