The petroleum ether, chloroform, methanol and aqueous extracts of the leaves of Argemone mexicana Linn. (Family: Papaveraceae) were evaluated for their wound healing activity in rats using excision (normal and infected), incision and dead space wound models respectively. The effects of test samples on the rate of wound healing were assessed by the rate of wound closure, period of epithelialisation, wound breaking strength, weights of the granulation tissue, determination of hydroxyproline, super oxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and histopathology of the granulation tissues. Nitrofurazone (0.2% w/w) in Simple ointment I. P. was used as reference standard for the activity comparison. The results of the study revealed that the animals treated with methanol and aqueous extracts of A. mexicana showed faster rate of wound healing compared to other extracts under study. The chloroform extract of the selected plants also produced promising results but the effects are seen to be of lesser extent than the corresponding methanol and aqueous extracts. The petroleum ether extract did not produce significant results. The wound healing effects of the chloroform, methanol and aqueous extracts may be attributed to the presence of phytoconstituents like alkaloids, triterpenoids, tannins and flavonoids in the extracts which are known to promote the wound healing process mainly due to their astringent, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. The present work justifies the use of the leaves of A. mexicana for wound healing activity as claimed in the folklore literature.
