Dear Editors,
We read with great interest the recent article entitled, ‘Efficacy of Jasminum grandiflorum L. leaf extract on dermal wound healing in rats’ by Chaturvedi et al. 1. This study concludes that topical use of the ointment made of methanolic extract of J. grandiflorum leaf improves the rate of wound healing by enhancing the rate of collagen synthesis and also by improving the antioxidant status in the newly synthesised healing wound tissue, and thus it is beneficial in the management of acute wound 1.
The sixteenth‐century French Surgeon Ambroise Pare is famous for saying, ‘I dressed the wound. God healed it’. The implication was that wounds heal by a mysterious, incomprehensible force as long as local care is adequate 2. Healing is an inevitable outcome and wound healing is taken for granted. If one debrides the wound of non‐viable tissue and repairs it in a physiological manner, the normal phases of wound healing, i.e. reaction, regeneration and remodelling, should proceed without difficulty 3. However, the presence of bacteria and bacterial products such as endotoxins and metalloproteinases can cause disturbances in this orderly scheme and affect each of the processes of healing 4. Thus, the presence of bacteria in significant number is one of the important causes for non‐healing of wound in addition to repeated trauma and ischaemia 5.
In the study by Chaturvedi et al., the effect of J. grandiflorum leaves (2% and 4% w/w) has been studied in excision‐ and incision‐type of wounds. This study shows the freshly developed non‐infected wounds with no history of repeated trauma and ischaemia. Although wound tissues were analysed for biochemical parameters and histopathological changes, no attempt was made to analyse the wound microbiologically to find out the bacterial level in wounds 1.
Thus, it is difficult to ascertain the efficiency and effectiveness of any new preparation in the absence of infection, repeated trauma and ischaemia, i.e. leading causes of non‐healing of wounds, and especially in the absence of the persistent tissue level of bacteria 5. Hence, we feel that it would be more appropriate to ascertain the effectiveness of J. grandiflorum L. leaf extract on dermal healing in rats using same set‐up in the presence of leading causes of non‐healing of wounds, i.e. infection, repeated trauma and ischaemia, which would be helpful to achieve more useful and meaningful conclusions.
Basavraj Nagoba, PhD1& Bharat Wadher, PhD2
1Department of Microbiology, MIMSR Medical College
Latur, India
dr_bsnagoba@yahoo.com
2P.G. Department of Microbiology, Nagpur University
Nagpur, India
Acknowledgement
The authors have declared that there is no conflict of interest.
References
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