Int. J. Pharm. Sci. Rev. Res., 27(2), July – August 2014; Article No. 35, Pages: 222-227 ISSN 0976 – 044X International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research Available online at www.globalresearchonline.net © Copyright protected. Unauthorised republication, reproduction, distribution, dissemination and copying of this document in whole or in part is strictly prohibited. © Copyright pro 222 Lalitha Vaidyanathan 1 * , Devi Thanikachalam 2 , Lokeswari T S Sivaswamy 3 1 Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. 2 Department of Biotechnology, Jaya Arts and Science College, Thiruninravur, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. 3 Department of Biotechnology, Sri Ramachandra University, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. * Corresponding author’s E-mail: lalithav85@gmail.com Accepted on: 22-05-2014; Finalized on: 30-06-2014. ABSTRACT Cassia auriculata Linn. is a plant reported for use in the Ayurvedic and Siddha system of medicine for treating various diseases. The study presented was an attempt to screen the ethanol and aqueous extracts of the flowers for wound healing potency using chick embryo wound model developed as part of the study. As evident from the experimental data the ethanol extract showed good dose-dependent healing potency. The ethanol extract at 500 μg concentration showed increased wound contraction by 50% compared to the negative control model in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane excision wound model. The results were statistically significant when compared to the control groups (p<0.05). The extract was also found to have better angiogenic properties from neovascularization studies. The chick embryo wound model has been reported to be a reliable model and could be used as an alternative to animal models for preliminary screening of compounds with wound healing potency. Keywords: Angiogenesis, Cassia auriculata, Chick embryo, Chorioallantoic membrane, Wound healing. INTRODUCTION edicinal plants are important not only as therapeutic agents but also as health maintaining agents. Reports from World Health Organization (WHO) suggest more than 80% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care. Herbal medicines have long histories of use, ease of administration, low cost and excellent safety records. Cassia is a genus of indigenous medicinal plants of which the species Cassia auriculata has large biodiversity in south India. This plant is known to contain various active principles of therapeutic values and possesses biological activities against a number of diseases. 1,2 C. auriculata commonly known as “avaram”, is a shrub belonging to the Caesalpiniaceae family. The individual parts of the plant can be used for the treatment of various disorders in humans. Among the different parts, the plant is famous for its attractive yellow flowers which are found to contribute to the various biological activities of the plant. The plant has been reported to possess several biological properties like hepatoprotective, anticancer, antioxidant, antidiabetic, anti inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. 3-9 Several phytochemicals like alkaloids, tannins and Saponins in ethanol extracts of certain plants have been reported to be effective against pathogens like Candida albicans which is a noted fungal pathogen in burn wounds. In addition phenolics, alkaloids and terpenoids exhibit excellent anti inflammatory activity, through any of the several cellular mechanisms like, altering the activities of immune cells involved in inflammatory reaction like the macrophages and neutrophil, modulating the proinflammatory gene expression, or by regulating the functional expression of the inflammatory enzymes. 10-12 The reports on wound management conclude on abnormal microbial load, necrosis, trauma and edema and the vascular insufficiency resulting from them as the major factors behind complications and delay in wound healing. The phytochemicals with the above said properties can thus reduce the local slack up factors like repeated long time inflammatory necrosis and edema in the wound and the infection, accelerating the healing process. The wound healing potency of the flower extracts were studied in this paper owing to scanty reports in this area. 13 Wound healing in mammalian tissues is a natural process of restoring the cellular structures and tissue layers, comprising three distinct phases: the inflammatory phase, the proliferative phase, and the remodeling phase; the main events being chemotaxis, phagocytosis, neocollagenesis, collagen deposition, angiogenesis and re-epithelialization. These phases and their bio- physiological functions must occur at the right time in proper sequence and continue for a specific duration at an optimal intensity. However, angiogenesis and re- epithelialization play a major role in the successful completion of the process. In spite of the fact that many mammalian animal models have been widely used in wound healing studies, several limitations for routine use of such models render them non-viable. Most important being, ethical constraints, cost and time consumption for preliminary screening and quantitative assessments of the crude extracts and phytoconstituents. Also, the molecular mechanism behind wound healing process is Evaluation of Wound Healing Potency of C assia auriculata Flower Extracts Using Chick Embryo Wound M odel M Research Article