A wound is a type of injury which occurs relatively quickly in which skin is torn, cut, or punctured (an open wound), or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion (a closed wound). Wound healing is the process of repair that follows injury to the skin and other soft tissues. Following injury, an inflammatory response occurs and the cells below the dermis begin to increase collagen (connective tissue) production. Later, the epithelial tissue (the outer skin) is regenerated. There are three stages to the process of wound healing: inflammation, proliferation, and remodelling. The wound-healing efficacy of methanolic extracts of Cheilanthes albomarginata was evaluated in excision and incision wound models. The parameters studied include rate of wound contraction, period of complete epithelialization and tensile strength of incision wound. Student's t test was used to analyse the results obtained from the present study and P<0.05 was considered significant. Methanolic extract of Cheilanthes albomarginata was found to possess significant wound-healing activity, which was evidenced by decrease in the period of epithelialization, increase in the rate of wound contraction and skin-breaking strength. The present study has demonstrated that the methanolic extract of Cheilanthes albomarginata have properties that render them capable of promoting accelerated wound-healing activity.
