UK Trial23 Dec 2018 16:47
A naturally-occurring chemical in birch bark helps skin wounds mend faster with less scarring, a clinical trial has found.
The bark of birch trees has long been known for its healing properties. This inspired German pharmaceutical company Birken AG – now owned by Amryt Pharma – to develop and test whether a gel made from birch bark extract might help treat wounds.
The company previously showed that the gel sped up the wound healing process in patients who had patches of skin cut out for surgical graft procedures.
Now, Quentin Frew at the St. Andrews Centre for Plastic Surgery and Burns in the UK and his colleagues have shown that the gel is also useful for treating burns, in a study funded by the pharmaceutical company.
The researchers recruited 57 patients with superficial burn wounds caused by fire, scalding or touching hot objects. In each case, they applied the birch bark gel to one half of the wound and a standard burn gel to the other half at least once every two days until healing was complete.
In 86 per cent of patients, the wound area treated with the birch bark gel healed faster than the area treated with the standard gel, with an average reduction in closure time of about one day. After 12 months, the texture, pigmentation and redness of the birch bark-treated areas were also rated as being closer in appearance to healthy skin.
Faster healing
The main ingredient in birch bark – a chemical called betulin – appears to speed up the healing process by encouraging skin cells to grow and migrate across the wound, says Frew. “Anything that heals the skin quicker reduces the risk of long-term scarring,” he says.
Several other molecules in the birch bark extract, including oleanolic acid, have also been shown to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, which may also aid skin repair, says Frew.
The gel has now been approved by the European Medicines Agency but won’t be available to buy in Europe and the UK until at least the end of 2019. It will also be submitted for approval in the US and Australia, Amryt Pharma says
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