Maria Fatmadewi Imawati, Antonius Budiawan, Levi Puradewa, Bida Cincin Kirana, Agus Purwanto
Portulaca grandiflora extract demonstrated wound-healing activity and contains high levels of flavonoids. However, the specific secondary metabolites of Portulaca grandiflora herb extract that are responsible for the wound-healing mechanism of action remain unclear. The present study aimed to evaluate the wound-healing effect of the total flavonoid content of purslane (Portulaca grandiflora) extract fractions on rabbit skin. The wound-healing activity was assessed in a New Zealand white rabbit model. The total flavonoid content of aqueous, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane fractions of Portulaca grandiflora was quantified using an aluminum chloride (AlCl₃) colorimetry method, and the effects of these fractions were compared to the positive control group (betadine solution) and the negative control group (distilled water). Among the fractions tested, the ethyl acetate fraction of Portulaca grandiflora exhibited the highest total flavonoid content at 4.7153% ± 0.0012% Weight/Weight (W/W) quercetin equivalent (QE), followed by the n-hexane and aqueous fractions at 2.0507% ± 0.0050% W/W (QE) and 1.9693% ± 0.0012% W/W (QE), respectively. All three fractions, including the aqueous, ethyl acetate, and n-hexane, demonstrated wound-healing activity in rabbit skin, which were significantly different from the negative control group on day 11. The aqueous fraction indicated the highest wound-healing effect, similar to the positive control group. The aqueous fraction and the positive control group were significantly different from the negative control group on day 9. The present findings indicated an inverse correlation between the total flavonoid content and the wound healing activity test. The aqueous fraction, which represented the lowest total flavonoid content, revealed the highest wound healing activity. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Department of Pharmacy Diploma-III, Pharmacy Faculty, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University, Madiun City, 63131, Indonesia; Department of Biology, Agricultural Technology Faculty, Widya Mandala Surabaya Catholic University, Madiun City, 63131, Indonesia