The potential of banana's skin extract as wound healing agent

Abstract

Banana's skin extract and coconut oil mixture were often used to heal scabies by the traditional practices in Malaysia. It was believed that it has a property that can promote wound healing. The objective of this study was to determine the potential skin extract in coconut oil and as well as the coconut oil itself in wound healing process. In this study, banana's skin extract and coconut oil were applied on white rat induced skin injury. There were three groups involved; Group 1 that was treated with banana's skin and coconut oil mixture, Group 2 that was treated with solely coconut oil and Group 3 that was untreated group. Observations on the healing progress were done continuously for 22 days. Euthanizations were conducted to half of number of white rats in each group at day 15 and the other half at day 22. Then, the wounded skin samples on those rats were subjected to histological examination. The result from this study indicated that the group treated with banana's skin and coconut oil recovered earliest compared to the other two groups. It can be concluded that the banana's skin extract contain wound healing agent that speed up the process of wound healing.