Publication:

Assessment of antioxidant activity of Ocimum sanctum in healing of thermal burn wound with and without supportive treatment of silver sulfadiazine in rabbits

Background Burns remain a major public health issue all over the world, especially in developing countries. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major cause of infection and death in patients with severe burns.  So, there is a need to develop drugs which will decrease complications and prevent infections more effectively than the presently used drugs.

Methods Ocimum sanctum, ointment silver sulfadiazine and 24 Rabbits were used in this study. Animals were acclimatized and divided randomly into 04 groups of 06 animals each. After producing partial thickness burn wound ointment silver sulfadiazine was applied daily on the burn wound and Ocimum sanctum was administered orally once daily. Healing was assessed by wound contraction and Oxidative stress and Antioxidant Activity were measured by Malondialdehyde and Superoxide dismutase respectively. Results were analysed by student’s ‘t’ test, one way ANOVA followed by Dennett’s test. P values <0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results At the end of treatment (After 28th Day) Group treated with ointment silver sulfadiazine+Ocimum sanctum showed  maximum Percentage of wound contraction (93.17±4.34), maximum decrease of MDA percentage (0.30±0.02 nmol/ml) and maximum increase of SOD percentage (0.0045±0.0002 IU/gm of Hb).

Conclusions Most effective treatment for burn wound healing in this study was ointment silver sulfadiazine+Ocimum sanctum.