Feasibility Study of Neptunia javanica Miq. Extract as an Alternative Medicine for Wound Healing

Neptunia javanica Miq. (NJ) locally known as Kra-Chood, is an unwanted weed that belongs to the family Mimosaceae. This study aims to investigate the feasibility of NJ extract being used as an alternative medicine for wound healing. Preliminary phytochemical analysis was carried out using standard phytochemical screening methods and the NJ ethanolic extract demonstrated alkaloid, flavonoid, tannin, and phenolic compounds. The total phenolic content of the NJ extract was 117.05 ± 0.03 mg GAE/g crude extract, and the total flavonoid contents were 0.63 ± 0.0231 mg RE/g crude extract. The antioxidant activities (IC50) of NJ were 9.29 ± 0.04 µg/mL which is lower than the IC50 of quercetin (38.49 ± 5.38 µg/mL) which represented the potent antioxidation activity of the NJ extract. The metal chelating activity (IC50) of NJ was 1.8584 ± 0.2708 mg/mL. The extract was also found to have α-glucosidase inhibitory and the IC50 was 1.89± 0.19 mg/mL which has a potency equal to 0.13 of the standard acarbose (0.25± 0.09 mg/mL). Moreover, the extract disturbed the human dermal fibroblast viability in a dose-dependent manner. Low concentration of the NJ extract (0.001-0.01 mg/mL) showed no cytotoxicity compared to the negative control (p < 0.05) while high concentration of the extract (0.5 and 1 mg/mL) significantly reduced the cell viability compared to the control (p < 0.05) and the low concentration (p < 0.05). Moreover, the fibroblast exposed to the NJ extract concentration of 0.001-0.01 mg/mL was found to significantly enhance cellular movement and wound gap closure compared to the negative control and gallic acid (p < 0.05). Thus, all these results could develop complementary and integrative benefits, and  more investigation in wound healing assay and a subject for should be conducted further studies in clinical trials.