Chronic wound has continued to pose a big health challenge with a concomitant effect on the economic and social status of patients with compromised immune system. There is an urgent need to develop an effective drug that would facilitate rapid wound healing in such individuals. To investigate the wound  healing  properties  of  extract  and  fractions  of Newbouldia leavis root bark in immunocompromsed  albino  rats, excision wound model was adopted. However, this  study  assessed  the  wound  healing  activities  of chloroform extract, n-hexane (NLHF) and ethylacetate (NLEAF) fractions of Newbouldia leavis  root  bark  in  5-fluorouracil-induced  immunocompromised  rats.  5-flourouracil (30mg/kg) was used to induce immunosuppression. The extract, fractions and reference drug (silver sulphadiazene) were topically applied for 15 days. Significant (p<0.05) increases in rate of wound contraction, elevated levels of hydroxyproline, hexosamine  and  hexuronic  acid  were  observed  in  treated  groups  when compared  with  the  untreated  groups  of  immunocompromised  rats.  The  extract  (40%) significantly enhanced wound healing with the highest percentage of wound contraction of 98.68 at day 12 when compared with groups treated with silver sulphadiazene(95.48%), 40% NLHF(77.04%) and 40% NLEAF(88.83%). The rats treated with NLEAF significantly  (p<0.05) enhanced wound  healing  activity  as shown by the increased  rate  of  wound  contraction, hydroxyproline, hexosamine and hexuronic acid concentrations compared to the group that received NLHF. It could be stated that Newbouldia leavis extract and fractions significantly promoted wound healing and were able to overcome the wound healing suppressing effect of 5-flourouracil.

Keywords: Wounds, 5-flourouracil, Immunosuppression, Newbouldia leavis, Silver sulphadiazene