Healing processes of burn wounds with honey and vaseline as ointment forms: An in-vivo study in Wistar rats

Abstract

Burn wounds need enhanced healing by using some workable agent for better treatments. The current work aimed to make a comparison between four types of honey and vaseline in ointment forms in-vivo using experimental rats. Several parameters have been evaluated such as wound epithelialization and vascular endothelial growth factor expression (VEGF) rates for skins. Some biochemical parameters such as nitrites (NO2) and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) were detected for serum. TNF-α immune response and hydroxyproline contents were also determined colorimetrically. Microbial infection of the burns was examined against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus strains. The wound epithelialization rate among animal groups after 15 days of treatment ranged from 52.13% to 89.58%. The highest VEGF expression rate was achieved by using the ointment formed by side honey (SIH) at 9.21% followed by pumpkin honey (PUH) at 8.54%, moringa honey (MOH) at 8.11%, and nigellasativa honey (NSH) as 7.02%, while vaseline group reported 5.22% VEGF expression. The ointment formed by the NSH rat group detected the highest NO2 at the end of the experimental work to reach (0.07 μmol/L) followed by SIH (0.06 μmol/L), while MOH and PUH groups reported equal values (0.05 μmol/L). The FRAP values varied in rat groups from 735.19 μmol TE/g (SIH) to 877.89 μmol TE/g (NSH). NSH reported the highest value for TNF-α immune response at 589.47 U/mL followed by SIH at 560.89 U/mL, while MOH reported the lowest value at 489.58 U/mL. For the microbial infections, the MOH group had the lowest zone of inhibition 5.18 mm, while the vaseline group reported the highest 19.88 mm against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It was observed that the highest zone of inhibition (19.22 mm) against Staphylococcus aureus was for the vaseline group, while the lowest zone of inhibition (5.33 mm) against Staphylococcus aureus was for SIH. All honey varieties, especially MOH had better results for NO2, TNF-α immune response, and successfully inhibited microbial infections in-vivo.