Wound Healing Activity of Propolis of West Algeria

Propolis is a resinous substance that bees use todefend their colonies against any pathogen. It has beenused in traditional medicine since ancient times because ofits therapeutic properties. Pollen analysis of propolis of AinTrid has shown that the region of Ain Trid is rich in plantspecies visited by bees (31 genus identified) and that themajority of these species are considered as medicinal plants,which gives propolis an important place in wound healing.The study of the wound healing activity is carried out in vivoon theWistar rats divided into 3 groups: group 1 treated withpropolis ointment, group 2 treated with commercial cream,and group 3 considered as untreated. The duration of treatmentwas estimated to be 23 days. The results obtainedshowed that the group treated by propolis ointment showeda high cure rate, in which the percentage of wound closurereached up to 94.93% ± 5.29 in the group 1, while in thegroup 2 arrived to 79.97% ± 13.01, and in group 3 was72.55% ± 19.94. The results demonstrated also that the numberof days required to contract 50% of wound area wasdifferent among the groups, in the 12th day in group 1,16th day in group 2, and 18th day post wounding in group 3.These results have shown that propolis can be prepared andused in traditional medicine as a natural ointment for thetreatment of skin diseases in our region.