An In Vivo Study on Wound Healing Activity of Prangos Species and Phytochemical Investigations

Wound healing is a dynamic and highly coordinated biological process involving four overlapping phases, as hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and tissue remodeling. The genus Prangos is known as “Çakşır” in Turkish and is an ethnomedicinal plant traditionally used in Anatolia for many purposes, including wound healing. The plant species is rich in furanocoumarins and their derivatives. This study aimed to investigate the wound-healing activity of selected endemic Prangos species, which are frequently mentioned in traditional medicine. For this purpose, several endemic species, such as Prangos abieticola Aytaç & H. Duman, Prangos denticulata Fisch. & C.A. Mey., Prangos heyniae H. Duman & M.F. Watson, and Prangos uechtritzii Boiss. & Hausskn. were collected and extracted for comparison of in vivo wound-healing activities. We evaluated the wound-healing activity of methanol extracts of the aerial parts of these species using a circular excision wound model. Tissue levels of TGF-β, hydroxyproline, total antioxidant status (TAS), total oxidant status (TOS), and oxidative stress index (OSI) were measured. The methanol extract of P. denticulata exhibited notable wound-healing activity. Therefore, in this study, P. denticulata was selected as a candidate for phytochemical investigations, and the methanol extract of the species was subjected to a successive chromatographic process. Phytochemical studies yielded seven known furanocoumarin-type compounds (1–9): isoimperatorin (1), imperatorin (2), oxypeucedanin methanolate (3), xanthotoxol (4), isogospherol (5), saxalin (6), and isosaxalin (7), along with a simple coumarin, ulopterol (8), and a linear-type dihydropyranocoumarin called decursinol angelate/agasyllin (9). The structures were elucidated using 1H, 13C, and 2D NMR spectroscopy, as well as MS fragmentation. This study reports the wound-healing activities of endemic species growing in Anatolian flora, along with the phytochemical content of the active species, P. denticulata. Since coumarin-type compounds are specific and dominant in Prangos species, it is considered that the wound-healing activity could be attributed to these compounds.