Ethnopharmacological relevance: Study of the interrelationships between human and the animals in their environment has always been a subject of interest and caused discoveries of the animal applications in medicine. From the latest century, these remedies called back in traditional medicine of Vietnam and South America and frog skin was used as a biological dressing and had good effects in healing wounds. Also, frog skin secretions have wound healing properties and reduce inflammation. In this study we applied these secretions in the form of ointment to investigate their healing activities. Materials and methods: Skin secretions were extracted from Rana ridibunda to evaluate their effects on wound healing in mice. Secretion used as raw extract (RE) and ultrafiltrated extract, using a membrane with cutoff 10 kDa as under 10 kDa (U10E), was administrated as ointment every 48 h on wound site. Control group was left without any treatment and also there was other group treated with ointment (O group) alone. On 2, 4 and 6 days post injury, animals were euthanized and images were taken for wound closure evaluation. Then wound locations were removed for histological assays. Also wound microbial load was examined. Observational parameters including wound closure and wound microbiology in experimental groups compared with the control and O groups have been studied. Results: The results showed U10E group has better effects than RE, O and control groups. Histological parameters, including numbers of inflammatory and fibroblast cells and amount of collagen fibers, neovascularization, as well, represented greater degree of wound healing in U10E group compared with RE, O, and control groups. Conclusions: Our results showed that frog skin secretions were significantly effective in promoting wound healing process. The U10E extract from the frog R. ridibunda possesses a potent accelerating wound healing effect that promises good potential for clinical application in wound care. Further studies will be required to characterize special molecules encompassing healing properties.

Keywords