Anti-ulcer activity of aqueous ethanol extract of Peperomia pellucida in Sprague dawley rats

Peperomia pellucida (Piperaceae), locally known as 'ketumpangan air' in Malaysia is a herbaceous plant which grows well in loose and humid soils under the shade of trees. In folk medicine, this species is used to treat abscesses, boils and skin wounds. The aerial part of the plant is boiled and the decoction is effective for arthritis and gout problems[1]. Previous studies done on this plant extract have shown prominent activities in anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties [2, 3]. An aqueous ethanol extract of the aerial part of Peperomia pellucida (PPE) was tested for anti-ulcerogenic effects in rats, using 0.2M NaOH, EtOH 80%, 0.6M HCl, NaCl 25% and 30mg/kg indomethacin. Administration of 10, 30, 100 and 300mg/kg doses of PPE was found to provide a dose-dependent protection against the ulcerogenic effects of different necrotizing agents. However, it did not show any dose-dependency for indomethacin-induced ulceration. The extract showed to possess the highest protective effects with 84.8% inhibition against indomethacin-induced ulceration, 99.3% inhibition against HCl-induced ulceration, 99.4% against NaCl-induced ulceration, 98.7% against NaOH – induced ulceration and 96.8% inhibition against ethanol-induced ulceration. The protective effect against indomethacin-induced ulceration of ranitidine 50mg/kg is as potent as the effects of PPE at 10mg/kg. Furthermore, at 30, 100 and 300mg/kg, PPE exhibited similar potency when induced with HCl, NaCl and NaOH. However, it gave a slight difference of inhibitory effects when induced with ethanol. At 300mg/kg, PPE was almost completely protected from any visible gastric damages. Thus, PPE may possess mucoprotective and antioxidative effects due to its ability to reduce ulcers induced by those 4 necrotic agents. Since it ubiquitously possessed anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties, it is not possible for the plant to also act as COX-2 inhibitor as it reduced the ulcer induced by a common NSAID, indomethacin which gives side effect of gastrointestinal problem in patients after long term consumption.

Acknowledgements: Research Management Centre, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Vote 531584

References: [1]. Bojo, A.C. et al. (2004) Asia Life Sci. 3, 35–44 [2]. Aziba, P.I et al. (2001) Fitoterapia 72, 57–58 [3]. Arrigoni-Blank et al. (2004) J. Ethnopharmacology 91, 215–218