Application of sweet potato fiber to skin wound in rat.

In order to introduce a suitable drug mixing base or covering for burns or decubital wounds, the usefulness of fiber extracted from the sweet potato was investigated. The healing effect of the fiber was evaluated by examining the extent of reduction in the size of wounds and changes in the quality of wounds in rats. In contrast to the control, the use of the fiber alone as a wound covering material reduced wounded areas by 21.0% at postoperative day 9, 19.5% at day 11, and 18.7% at day 13, and resulted in an obvious increase in the rats' weight. The number of days required for healing in all treated rats was 19 for the fiber groups and over 21 d for the control. In vitro, the fiber indicated excellent absorptive ability for serum and good adhesive ability for a number of proteins. This result suggested that the fiber has favorable properties for healing wounds which contain large amounts of exudate. Our macroscopic findings also indicated that the fiber protected wounds from dryness. These results suggested that sweet potato fiber could be use as a covering material in combination with drugs in skin wound therapy.