RESUMEN
Avicennia schaueriana is found in Brazilian mangrove coast. The cytotoxicity in vitro of the Aqueous Extract of Leaves of Avicennia schaueriana (AELAs) and the healing activity of the plant in cream on mice skin wounds were evaluated in this study. The cytotoxic evaluation was performed on Vero cells. The healing activity was evaluated on mice treated during 5, 10 and 15 days with cream at 5%, solution of sodium chloride at 0.9% and dexpanthenol in cream at 5%. The extract did not show cytotoxicity, but showed mitogenic activity (100µg/ml). In morphometric analysis, the percentage of wound contraction after 10 days was higher in dexpanthenol group (93.41%). In 15 days, the lowest percentage of contraction was observed in the dexpanthenol group (94.41%) and the highest in the AELAs cream group (98.50%). In histomorphometry the dexpanthenol showed the lowest length of re-epithelialization in 10 days. In 15 days, the AELAs cream group showed 100% of re-epithelialization. The number of fibroblasts found in AELAs cream group was higher than the saline solution in 10 days. In 15 days, AELAs cream group maintained a higher amount of fibroblasts when compared to the others. A. schaueriana did not show cytotoxicity. Furthermore, topical application of AELAs cream decreased the wound area, stimulated the re-epithelialization and increased the number of fibroblasts. The species A. schaueriana could become a topical treatment in tissue repair process.