Gastroprotective Effect of an Ethanolic Extract from Neoglaziovia variegata (Arruda) Mez (Bromeliaceae) in Rats and Mice

(Wallace and Granger, 1996; Wallace, 2001)Medicinal plants currently represent a promis-ing alternative treatment for gastric injuries. Re-cent studies have shown a large variety of chemical compounds isolated from herbs and plant extracts that exhibit therapeutic activity in experi mental models of gastric ulcer, which indicates the impor-tant potential of plants and their active metabolites in the discovery of novel therapies against peptic ulcers (Schmeda-Hirschmann and Yesilada, 2005).The Bromeliaceae family has been found all over the neotropic ecosystem with wide distribu-tion in the American continent. In Brazil, many endemic species of this family occur, some of them are used in folk medicine against gastro-intestinal disorders, such as