title: The effect of saffron (Crocus sativus) extract for healing of second-degree burn wounds in rats.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of pollen of saffron extract cream in the treatment of thermal induced burn wounds and to compare its results with silver sulfadiazine (SSD) in rats. Animals were divided into four groups and administrated a topical cream including control, base, saffron (20%) or SSD (1%) at 24 hour after a burn injury that was induced by hot water. In special days, according to a pre-planned schedule, animal's weight, wound size, as well as skin histo-pathology were determined in different groups under topical treatments. On day 25, average size of wound was 5.5, 4, 0.9 and 4.1 cm2 in control, base, saffron and silver groups. The wound size of saffron group was significantly smaller than other groups. Histological comparison has shown that saffron significantly increased re-epithelialization in burn wounds, as compared to other cream-treated wounds. Although the exact mechanism of saffron is unclear, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of saffron may have contributed to the wound healing. The results of this study raise the possibility of potential efficacy of saffron in accelerating wound healing in burn injuries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, 18 Kilometer Khazar Boulevard, Sari, Iran.
authors.forename: Ghasemali
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Khorasani
authors.forename: Seyed Jalal
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Hosseinimehr
authors.forename: Peyman
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zamani
authors.forename: Maryam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ghasemi
authors.forename: Amirhossein
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002056:Burns / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D027622:Crocus; D008297:Male; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012837:Silver Sulfadiazine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D012837:Silver Sulfadiazine