European Journal of Biological Research (Mar 2017)
Moringa oleifera Lam extract attenuates gastric ulcerations in high salt loaded rats
Abstract
Moringa oleifera Lam is a plant used extensively both in traditional and orthodox medicine to treat myriad ailments, including gastrointestinal disorders. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of leaf extract of M. oleifera some gastrointestinal function parameters in high salt loaded rats. Acute toxicity study was done using 70 male white mice (18-20 g) were used for the study. They were randomly selected and assigned to 7 cages of 10 animals per cage. Percentage mortalities were converted to probits and plotted against the log10 of the dose of the extract from which the LD50 value was calculated. Fresh leaf extract of M. oleifera was Soxhlet extracted. 24 albino Wistar rats were randomly assigned into 4 main groups of 6 rats each. Fed on normal rat chow, high salt (8% NaCl) diet + 1% NaCl drinking water and/or M. oleifera extract (600 mg/kg bw). The feeding regimens lasted for 42 days. Results obtained revealed that the extract had an LD50 value of 1,872.22 mg/kg from which a test dose of 600 mg/kg was derived for the feeding regimen. The salt fed rats had significantly (p<005) raised basal gastric acid output (9.03 ± 0.17 mmol/L/hr) compared with control (7.27 ± 0.17 mmol/L/hr), but had blunted response to administered histamine and cimetidine, while treatment with the extract enhanced the sensitivity of histamine in high salt loaded rats. Gastric mucus concentration was significantly (p<0.05) higher in the salt untreated group (0.25 ± 0.004 g) compared with other groups. The salt fed untreated group also had significantly (p<0.05) raised gastric ulcers (10.83 ± 0.70) compa-red with other groups, these were reversed following Moringa treatment. In conclusion, Moringa oleifera extract reverses gastric ulcers and blunted histaminergic receptors in high salt fed rats. The mechanism by which high salt increases gastric secretion is independent of the histaminergic mechanism. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.290641
