Objective To explore the mechanism of Liuhedan in promoting wound healing through applying Liuhedan to the infective wounds of New Zealand white rabbits. Methods A total of forty New Zealand white rabbit models of infective wounds were established after anesthesia. Five circular infective incisions were generated on the back of each rabbit, with a diameter of 2 cm. Five wounds of each rabbit were assigned respectively to the control group, model group, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) group (Oleum Lithospermum), Western medicine group (calcium alginat), and treatment group (Liuhedan). Wound dressings were performed every day since postoperative day 1. Ten rabbits were selected randomly to be euthanized on postoperative day 3, 7, 14 and 21, respectively. Each specimen was divided into two parts. One was used for detecting interleukin-1β (IL-1β) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the other was used for detecting tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) by immunocytochemistry. Results On postoperative day 3 and 7, groups with the expression of IL-1β from low to high were respectively the control group, the treatment group, the Western medicine group, the TCM group, and the model group [postoperative day 3: (680.81±185.53), (1 028.67±205.57), (1 278.67±251.15), (1 449.86±230.74), (1 544.62±371.77) pg/mL; postoperative day 7: (1 024.43±239.94), (1 333.57±257.31), (1 635.14±222.40), (1 784.71±323.85), (1 953.29±324.78) pg/mL], and all the differences among the groups were significant (P<0.05); On postoperative day 14, groups with the expression of IL-1β from low to high were respectively the treatment group, the control group, the Western medicine group, the TCM group, and the model group [(908.71±108.61), (978.57±161.75), (1 120.43±265.39), (1 129.71±298.06), (1 191.14±234.92) pg/mL], and all the differences among groups were significant (P<0.05) except the difference between the Western medicine group and the TCM group (P>0.05); On postoperative day 21, the expression of IL-1β in the control group, the model group, the TCM group, and the Western medicine group was (487.19±121.80), (496.35±102.15), (500.31±139.34), (499.08±120.67) pg/mL, respectively, with no significant differences among the groups (P>0.05), which were all higher than that in the treatment group [(398.62±102.93) pg/mL] with significant difference (P<0.05). The expression of TNF-α in the model group was significantly greater than those in the other groups. The expression of TNF-α in the treatment group and Western medicine group was significantly lower compared with the model group. The expression of TNF-α in the TCM group was stronger compared with those in the treatment group and the Western medicine group. Conclusion Liuhedan can specifically suppress the expressions of IL-1β and TNF-α in the treatment of infective wounds, decrease the release of inflammatory factor and promote the healing.