Maerua oblongifolia (Forsk.) A. Rich. Extract Loaded Floating Microballoons: Advance Therapy to Treat and Manage Gastric Ulcer.

Purpose: This study aimed to develop floating microballoons loaded with Maerua oblongifolia (Forsk.) A. Rich. root aqueous extract (FMMO) and to evaluate its anti-ulcerogenic activity in Wistar Albino rats. Methods: FMMO was prepared by solvent evaporation method and its size, floating time, buoyancy percentage were determined. Oral acute toxicity of FMMO was assessed following OECD (423) guidelines. Invivo anti-ulcer efficacy was evaluated in indomethacin, pylorus ligation, and cysteamine induced ulcer model. Results: The yield to solvent of M. oblongifolia root was 20% w/w with carbohydrates, proteins, amino acids, and glycosides as its major bioactives. Optimized FMMO displayed spherical shape as expected with average size of around 300µ diameter and in-vitro buoyancy of 75% at 10 h. Oral acute toxicity study exhibited neither toxic symptoms nor mortality at 2000 mg/Kg of FMMO, hence further anti-ulcer evaluation was progressed using 100 and 200 mg/Kg body weight. FMMO presented gastric ulcer healing, gastric anti-secretory effect in pylorus ligation model; gastric cytoprotective effect in indomethacin induced gastric ulcer and significant reduction in duodenal ulcers. Conclusion: An enhancement of gastric ulcer healing was observed with FMMO in indomethacin induced ulcers. Concurrently, FMMO also demonstrated a preventive action on development of gastric and duodenal ulcers in experimental animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]