The In Vitro and In Vivo Wound Healing Properties of the Chinese Herbal Medicine “Jinchuang Ointment”

“Jinchuang ointment” is a traditional Chinese herbal medicine complex for treatment of incised wounds. For more than ten years, it has been used at China Medical University Hospital (Taichung, Taiwan) for the treatment of diabetic foot infections and decubitus ulcers. Three different cases are presented in this study. “Jinchuang” ointment is a mixture of natural product complexes from nine different components, making it difficult to analyze its exact chemical compositions. To further characterize the herbal ingredients used in this study, the contents of reference standards present in a subset of the ointment ingredients (dragon's blood, catechu, frankincense, and myrrh) were determined by HPLC. Two in vitro cell based assay platforms, wound healing and tube formation, were used to examine the biological activity of this medicine. Our results show that this herbal medicine possesses strong activities including stimulation of angiogenesis, cell proliferation, and cell migration, which provide the scientific basis for its clinically observed curative effects on nonhealing diabetic wounds.