Teucrium polium: a promising source of molecules with a wound healing effect and biological activities

• Published in: Euro-Mediterranean journal for environmental integration 2023-06, Vol.8 (2), p.319-327
• Main Authors: Chtourou, Haifa, Bendaoud, Houcine, Ben Nasr, Hmed, Sahnoun, Zouheir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetic acid; Acids; Agar diffusion test; Antibacterial activity; Antioxidants; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Biological effects; Chloramphenicol; Chloromycetin; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Management; Environmental Science and Engineering; Ethyl acetate; Fractionation; Free radicals; Hexanes; Industrial applications; Inflammation; Injuries; Methods; Neutralization; Original Paper; Polyphenols; Skin; Skin injuries; Solvents; Teucrium polium; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Wound healing
• ISSN: 2365-6433; 2365-7448
• DOI: 10.1007/s41207-023-00371-5

Investigating plant phytochemistry is crucial for several health, pharmacological and industrial applications. Herein, two extraction methods using solvents of increasing polarity were applied to prepare extracts from Teucrium polium . The biological activities of the extracts were investigated using in vitro antioxidant and antibacterial tests. The potential of the plant for wound healing of injured rat skin was also investigated. The aqueous fractionating extract presented a higher content of total polyphenols (662 mg GAE/g dry wet) than the other extracts. Extracts obtained by the fractionating method scavenged the DPPH radical with an IC 50 ranging from 0.017 to 0.585 mg/mL, while the successive extraction method gave an extract with ethyl acetate solvent that showed good anti-DPPH activity (IC 50 of 0.160 mg/mL). Fifty percent neutralization of the ABTS cation was obtained using concentrations of extracts ranging from 0.010 ± 0.002 mg/mL (crude extract) to 0.114 ± 0.001 (successive extraction using hexane). The agar diffusion test was used to evaluate antibacterial activity and showed that the antibacterial activities of the extracts from the two methods differed. In particular, chloramphenicol presented the highest antibiotic activity against all assayed bacterial strains, with the inhibition diameter ranging from 25.5 to 36.5 mm. The application of T. polium powder as an ointment to injured rat skin significantly enhanced the wound healing and led to full re-epithelialization and complete epidermal regeneration within 12 days of treatment. These findings provide strong proof that T. polium can be used to promote wound healing in mechanical skin injuries, which may be achieved through antibacterial and antioxidant effects exerted by bioactive molecules from the plant. Graphical abstract