Ulcer Protective and Ulcer Healing Activities of Aqueous and Methanolic Extracts of Leaves of Rumex Bequaertii De Wild (Polygonaceae) in Rats

Abstract

The aqueous and methanolic extracts of Rumex bequaertii leaves were investigated for their ability to prevent and treated ulceration of the gastric mucosa in animal models.

For this, adult male rats three to four months old and weighing on average 180 g were used for both tests. The extracts were tested orally at doses of 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg, on ulcerations experimentally induced by HCl/ethanol and pylorus ligation (acute ulcer) and acetic acid (chronic ulcer).

These extracts showed protective and healing properties on ulcer induced models. A dose of 500 mg/kg of the two extracts inhibited ulceration induced by HCl/ethanol by 98.86 and 91.59 % respectively. With pyloric ligation, no significant variation of the volume of gastric juices, pH and gastric acidity was observed compared to the negative control rats. The aqueous extract alone at different doses presented a significant reduction of the ulceration surface resulting from chronic ulcer induced with acetic acid compared to the negative control group that received distilled water. For all three models of gastric ulcer induction used, the mass of mucus significantly increased in the groups that received the extracts. There was no significant variation in plasmatic nitric oxide (NO) concentrationand gastric supernatant of rats treated with both extracts compared to both control groups. These results reveal that the healing process of the extracts is not achieved through the NO pathway. This process could be due to increase in mucus production and thus supports its traditional use of the plant