RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A researcher from Paraná discovered that a typical plant in the Brazilian coast can be the base for an ointment able to expedite scarring in diabetics. It is the cordia (Cordia verbenacea), found in the sandbank vegetation, near the beaches.
The research was conducted by Jéssica Kelly Pereira Martim, a Master’s student in Industrial Biotechnology at the Positivo de Curitiba University (PR), with the support of four professors and science initiation students, in addition to the institution’s laboratory teams.
According to the biologist, the finding can be an important alternative to prevent the worsening of injuries to diabetics. And thus, reduce amputations, which have diabetes as the number one cause.
“Diabetics experience difficulty in healing due to inhibition of vascularization and poor growth factor expression. The ointment provided the benefit of an improvement in the effectiveness and quality of scarring. As the plant is known to possess a beneficial anti-inflammatory factor, it is believed that its compounds are involved in the scarring process efficiently”.
The finding serves a public that is growing in the country and in the world. It is estimated that 6.9 percent of the Brazilian population suffers from this condition – approximately 13 million people.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that the disease has increased 62 percent in the country over the past decade, particularly due to the aging population, poor eating habits and lack of physical activity.
According to Thaís Andrade Costa Casagrande, professor of Master’s and Doctorate in Industrial Biotechnology at the Positivo University, one of the people responsible for guiding the methodology and monitoring the development of research, the product is already being patented.