Anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties of Rubus fairholmianus Gard. root—An in vivo study

•R. fairholmianus extract reduced carrageenan and croton oil induced inflammation.•RFRA found to enhance the healing of excision, incision, infected and burn wound.•The quercetin like flavonoid in RFRA promotes wound healing and anti-inflammation.•Our finding is the first report in the pharmacological investigations of R. fairholmianus.

This study aims to develop an effective therapeutic agent from Rubus fairholmianus root acetone extract (RFRA) against inflammatory related diseases as this plant is being used in folk medicine to treat various other ailments. The root acetone extract (up to 2000 mg/kg b. wt.) was used to observe acute toxicity in mice for 14 days. Two doses (200 and 400 mg/kg) were used to evaluate anti-inflammatory activity using carrageenan induced paw edema in rats and croton oil induced ear edema in mice. Both the doses significantly reduced the paw and ear edema compared to indomethacin. The acute dermal toxicity studies for RFRA extract were carried out and examined for wound healing activity at two doses (1% and 2%) in excision, incision, staphylococcus aureus infected and burn wound models in rat. RFRA 2% depicted significant wound healing properties; by increasing the percentage of wound contraction thereby by decreasing the period of epithelization compared with betadine (5%) and neomycin (5%). We have assumed that the peak shown close to the standard quercetin in the extract could be quercetin like compound (20.89 min). RFRA showed significant anti-inflammatory and wound healing properties which may be due to the presence of analogues of quercetin and other related polyphenolic compounds and hence it has immense scope as an effective source to develop a drug for the treatment of inflammatory related disorders.

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