Introduction: The Jatropha gossypiifolia L., which is used in popular medicine is considered to have good diuretic effect in hypertension and is also used as a laxative drug. It seems to have a healing effect, although not proved till now.
Purpose: To evaluate the influence of intraperitoneal administration of Jatropha Gossypiifolia L., in suture healing of ventral abdominal wall of rats, through tensiometric measurement, macro and microscopic aspect of post-operative period.
Methods: Forty Wistar male rats were allocated in two groups of 20 animals. After the incision and exposure of abdominal cavity 1 ml/kg/weight of 0,9% sodium chloride solution was injected in control group, and in the other one the injection was of 1 ml/kg/weight of a gross ethanol extract of Jatropha gossypiifolia L. The suture of the abdominal wall was than performed with polypropylene separated stitches. The animals were followed-up and killed in the third and seventh days. The ventral abdominal wall was macroscopically analyzed, the resistance strength to strain was measured and it was also studied the histological aspects.
Results: On macroscopic examination more intense adhesion was found on the group of Jatropha in both third and seventh post-operative days. The strain evaluation was meanly greater on Jatropha group also in third and seventh days.
Conclusion: The histological comparative analysis between the different groups showed that the acute inflammatory process was meanly greater for the Jatropha group in third and seventh post-operative days. The vascular neoformation was significantly greater in third post-operative day of Jathopha group; the other histological parameters were just alike. The intraperitoneal injection of Jatropha extract did not have any significant improvement for the wound healing on ventral abdominal wall on the evaluated animals in this study, no matter if analyzed at the third or seventh post-operative days.