**1. Introduction**

The care of acute and chronic wound is the biggest challenges worldwide [1]. There are different kind of wounds, among them burns remain a major public health problem in developing countries [2]. There are different ways to heal the wound such as nano dressing [3], negative pressure [4], medicinal plants [5], synthetic polymers [6], gene therapy [7], stem cell [8], growth factors [9] and Functionalized Silk Biomaterials [10]. Flavonoids is one of an important bioactive source from medicinal plants that possess different pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, free radical scavenging capacity, coronary heart disease prevention,

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anticancer activities, growth regulators [11]. Wound results in edema, redness followed by pain. Inflammation is the major characteristics as a result of wound due to the release of eicosanoids, prostaglandins, leukotrienes and reactive oxygen species. By controlling all these factors will result in healing the wound faster. Recent students on Buddleja species and three Ghanaian species *Spathodea campanulata*, *Commelina diffusa* and *Secamone afzelii* showed antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. These antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties were due to the presence of flavonoids and other bioactive compounds that works in combination to heal the wound [12]. The chapter deals with the study of role of flavonoids, mechanism of action that involves in healing the wound.

**3. What is the role of flavonoids on human health?**

**4. Flavonoids and wound healing**

*Buddleja globosa* Linarin (acacetin-7-O-rutinoside),

*Moringa oleifera Lam* Vicenin-2, kaempferol and quercetin

luteolin and 6-hydroxyluteolin

**Table 2.** List of medicinal plants possessing flavonoids in healing the wound.

Flavonoids are phenolic substances isolated from a wide range of vascular plants, with over 8000 individual compounds known [32]. They possess wide variety of activities such as antimicrobial [33], anti-oxidant [34], anti-cancer [35], anti-inflammatory [36] and wound healing [37]. Among all flavonoids there are some flavonoids such as flavan-3-ols and flavonols, possess a wide spectrum due to suppress a number of microbial virulence factors and show synergism with antibiotics [38]. While there has been a major focus on the antioxidant properties, there is an emerging view that flavonoids, and their in vivo metabolites, do not act as conventional hydrogen-donating antioxidants but may exert modulatory actions in cells through actions at protein kinase and lipid kinase signaling pathways. Flavonoids, and more recently their metabolites, have been reported to act at phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase), Akt/protein kinase B (Akt/PKB), tyrosine kinases, protein kinase C (PKC), and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAP kinase) signaling cascades. Inhibitory or stimulatory actions at these pathways are likely to affect cellular function profoundly by altering the phosphorylation state of target molecules and by modulating gene expression [39]. In many molecular mechanisms of action for prevention against cancer, flavonoids play a major role by interacting between different types of genes and enzymes. Many mechanisms of action have been identified, including carcinogen inactivation, antiproliferation, cell cycle arrest, induction of apoptosis, inhibition of angiogenesis, antioxidation, and reversal of multidrug resistance or a combination of these mechanisms [40].

Catechins are one of the most widely tested classes of flavonoids for their wound healing modulation [41]. Lastly, considering that the delay in wound healing is due to insufficient or excessive fibroblast activity, some authors suggest that inhibition of fibroblast growth by flavonoids such as apigenin is beneficial for the treatment of skin injuries. Luteolin is another famous flavonoid present in medicinal plants, vegetables and fruits. It was also found as wound healing agent in different wound models [42]. Rutin which is found in many medicinal

**Medicinal plants Flavonoids isolated Wound healing model Reference**

*Butea monosperma* Genistein and prunetine Excision wound model, Incision wound

*Ononis spinosa L* Ononin, sativanone-7-O-glucoside Linear incision and circular excision

*Parapiptadenia rigida* Catechin Fibroblast proliferation assay [41]

Fibroblast growth stimulation [44]

Role of Flavonoids as Wound Healing Agent http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.79179 97

[45]

[46]

[47]

Cell viability, proliferation, and wound

model, Dead space wound model

wound models and hydroxyproline

scratch test assays.

estimation assay
