Comparison of the effect of aqueous extract of Artemisia herba alba and procaine penicillin on healing induced defect of the ear cartilage

This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of aqueous extract of Artemisia herba alba (Asteraceae) and procaine penicillin on healing induced defect of the ear cartilage. A total of (25) female rats which used in this study were distributed randomly into five treatment group(five animals per each). Under routine surgery, all rats had circular holes in the elastic cartilage of their ears. All treatment groups were treated with local application daily for one week. Control group(C) treated with normal saline only. First treatment group(T1) treated with 5% Artemisia aqueous extract, second treatment group(T2) treated with 10% Artemisia aqueous extract, third treatment group(T3) treated with 15% Artemisia aqueous extract, fourth treatment group(T4) treated with procaine penicillin. The results showed that there was no significant differences between all treatment group except between (T3) and other treatment groups (1.857± 0.293). It could be concluded that concentration of aqueous extract at 15% (T3)affected significantly on reduce the diameter of ear defect after three weeks of treatment, the result of histo pathological test reveal that complete healing, absence of scar tissue, both edges of cartilage and fused together with marked fibrosis and formed large blood vessels