Gastric ulcer protective effect of the Curcuma comosa traditional formula in rats

Several Thai traditional herbal medications are used for the relief of menopause symptoms, including the Curcuma comosa traditional formula (CCZ). CCZ contains Curcuma comosa, Curcuma aromatica and Zingiber montanum at a ratio of 1:1:1. One of the most prevalent diseases in perimenopausal women, is peptic ulcer. Since gastric ulcer is a common disease in adults of both genders, we hypothesized that this could be used for wider benefit. We investigated the potential gastric ulcer prevention activity of CCZ on gastric ulcers in adult male rats, as compared with the standard-of-care, ranitidine, using three different models. Rats were treated either acutely or chronically with CCZ or ranitidine (positive control), prior to inducing ulcers with either aspirin or hydrochloric acid or water immersion restraint stress (WIR). Ranitidine (50 mg/kg) or CCZ (0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 g/kg) were orally administered to the rats 30 minutes before gastric ulcer induction for acute effect, or given once a day for 14 days and the ulcer induced on day 15, for chronic dosing investigations. Our results revealed that in the aspirin-induced model, CCZ single pretreatment showed a tendency to decrease gastric ulcers, although this was not statistically different from vehicle control, while ranitidine significantly reduced ulcer formation. In the HCl–induced gastric ulcers, both the acute and chronic CCZ pretreatments significantly decreased gastric lesions. The therapeutic effect on ulcer formation was dose-dependent for the single dose, and the 2.0 g/kg dose was more efficacious than ranitidine. This dose-dependence was not observed in the long term pretreatment group. In WIR–induced gastric ulcer, only single CCZ pretreatment significantly protected against gastric lesions, while ranitidine significantly decreased gastric lesions after both single and long term pretreatments. Our data demonstrates that CCZ has acute gastric ulcer protection for hypersecretion of acid and stress-induced ulcers and relatively lower protection against the damage induced by nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin. The mucosal protective activity was observed only for acid-induced gastric ulcer after long term pretreatment. Our data further clarify the efficacy of CCZ in protecting the gastric mucosal membrane and reducing ulcer formation in male rats, indicating the potential for this being a treatment option for patients of both genders. Keyword: Curcuma comosa traditional formula, Curcuma comosa, Zingiber montanum, antiulcer, gastric ulcer protection