Ethnopharmacological relevance: Traditionally fruits of Ficus glomerata Roxb (Family: Moraceae) are used to treat anemia and gastrointestinal disorders.
Aim: Gastroprotective effect of 50% ethanolic extract of F. glomerata fruit (FGE) was studied in different gastric ulcer models in rats.
Methods: FGE (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight) was administered orally, twice daily for 5 days for prevention from pylorus ligation (PL), ethanol (EtOH) and cold restraint stress (CRS)-induced ulcers. Estimation of H+K+ATPase activity and gastric wall mucous were performed in EtOH-induced ulcer and antioxidant enzyme activities in supernatant mitochondrial fraction of CRS-induced ulcers.
Results: FGE showed dose dependent inhibition of ulcer index in pylorus ligation, ethanol and cold restraint stress-induced ulcers. FGE prevents the oxidative damage of gastric mucosa by blocking lipid peroxidation and by significant decrease in superoxide dismutase, H+K+ATPase and increase in catalase activity. High performance thin layer chromatography (HPTLC) analysis showed the presence of 0.57% and 0.36% w/w of gallic acid and ellagic acid in FGE.
Conclusions: Our results show that F. glomerata possess significant gastroprotective activity which might be due to gastric defence factors and phenolics might be the main constituents responsible for this activity.