Studies on wound healing and antiinflammatory activities of Hypericum perforatum L. and Hypericum scabrum L.

The aerial parts of H. perforatum, which is commonly used for many purposes in folk medicine and H. scabrum, which is widespread in Anatolia, were investigated for their in vivo wound healing and antiinflammatory activities using various experimental models. To investigate the wound healing activity, the aerial parts of H. perforatum was prepared in olive oil as described in folk medicine and applied topically on the insicion and excision wounds created on the back parts of the mice. Ethanolic extracts prepared from H. perforatum and H. scabrum, for evaluation of their active constituents, were analysed for their wound healing and also antiinflammatory activities. According to our studies, the ethanolic extract of H. perforatum was found effective therefore, our studies continued with the fractionation of the ethanolic extract with the solvents in increasing polarities. The ethylacetate fraction was found effective, consequently this fraction was seperated to subfractions by applying Sephadex LH-20 Coloumn Chromatography. These subfractions were clasified as two groups according to their phytochemical contents. These two groups of phytochemicals were experimented in our activity models. Although both groups were found to be effective for wound healing and antiinflammatory activities ethylacetate fraction was more effective than the subfractions. Key words: Hypericum perforatum, Hypericum scabrum, wound healing, antiinflammatory activity