Anti-microbial and Wound Healing Properties of Leaf Extracts of Spermacoce verticillata L

Abstract

The Rubiaceae family is one of the most important medicinal families that are found in the tropical region of the world. There are many species under the Rubiaceae family such as Coffea arabica, Cinchona officinalis, Spermacoce verticillate. There are several plant parts used to extract the metabolites from, such as the leaf, bark, root, seed, or fruit. The leaf of Spermacoce verticillata has many medicinal values as it contains metabolites which help to reduce microbial activity and help to heal the wound. The microbial activity can lead to skin infections and internal disease. The plant metabolites can act via inhibition of cell wall formation or inhibition of protein synthesis. Wound healing is referred to as the repair of cuts and infections of the human skin. Leaf extracts may help to increase the fibrin formation to clot the blood, and the metabolic compounds may also help to reduce the microbial load in the wound to reduce the chance of infection. Plant leaves contain many metabolites that can act as antimicrobial substances for humans such as minimoidiones A, Cytochalasin D, multiforicin I, and xylarenones E.. Some of those factors can disrupt the sequence of wound healing such as factors of controlling blood sugar level which seriously affect the wound healing and external factors such as contamination of microbes in the wound. The wound healing properties of leaf extract help the immune system to fight the microbes which slow down the wound healing process by the release of harmful metabolites.