Anti-Ulcer (Ulcer-Preventive) Activity of Ficus arnottiana Miq. (Moraceae) Leaf Methanolic Extract
- 1 Annamalai University, India
- 2 University of Minho, Portugal
Abstract
Problem statement: In spite of being one of the well-known medicinal plants used in Indian traditional medicine to treat several ailments, studies pertaining to the pharmacological properties of Ficus arnottiana are very scarce. We studied the anti-ulcer activity and acute toxicity of Ficus arnottiana leaf methanolic extract for the first time. Approach: Freshly collected F. arnottiana leaves were dried, powdered and extracted in methanol. To study the anti-ulcer activity, Wistar rats were orally administered with different doses of the extract (0, 250 and 500 mg kg-1 body weight day-1) or with the reference drug omeprazole (8 mg kg-1) for 10 days. After induction of ulcer using 5 mL kg-1 ethanol, stomachs of these animals were analyzed for gastric volume, ulcer area and gross pathological changes. Results: Our results showed that F. arnottiana methanolic extract could prevent ulcer in rats in a dose-dependent manner. Histological studies revealed that the extract had muco-protective activity. The extract did not show any acute toxicity even at the dose of 5000 mg kg-1 indicating that the extract has no lethal effect. Preliminary phytochemical screening of this extract identified the presence of important secondary metabolites like flavonoids and tannins. Conclusion/Recommendations: From this study, it is clear that F. arnottiana leaf extract had significant anti-ulcer activity in animal models. It had muco-protective activity and gastric anti-secretary activity. The extract is non-toxic even at relatively high concentrations.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajptsp.2009.89.93
Copyright: © 2009 Marslin Gregory, K. P. Vithalrao, G. Franklin and V. Kalaichelavan. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Ficus arnottiana
- flavonoids
- gastric volume
- ulcer area
- omeprazole