Effects of an aqueous extract from dried mature unripe fruit of Morinda citrifolia (L.) and its biomarker scopoletin on acute reflux esophagitis and gastritis in rats

The dried mature unripe noni fruit (Morinda citrifolia L.) has been safely used for centuries as a traditional folk medicine for the treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders in Thailand. Recently, noni fruit extract has shown anti-inflammatory [1] and antioxidative activities [2] in several in vitro test systems. The present study was carried out to evaluate the preventive effect of an aqueous extract from dried mature unripe noni fruit and its biomarker scopoletin on acute acid reflux esophagitis and ethanol-induced acute gastritis in rats. The potency of an aqueous fruit extract and scopoletin was compared with those of ranitidine and lansoprazole. Results indicated that aqueous fruit extracts (0.625–5.0g/kg), scopoletin (0.5mg/kg), ranitidine (50mg/kg) and lansoprazole (1mg/kg) significantly prevented the formation of acute acid reflux esophagitis by 80.52–86.65, 78.13, 87.87 and 85.71% inhibition, respectively and reduced the formation of ethanol-induced acute gastric lesions by 77.65–88.39, 74.94, 89.68 and 89.63% inhibition, respectively. The results indicate that an aqueous extract from dried mature unripe noni fruit and its biomarker scopoletin can effectively prevent acute reflux esophagitis and gastritis. The antiulcerogenic mechanism seemed to be closely associated with its ability to decrease gastric acid secretion and might also increase the mucosal defensive mechanism through its antioxidant properties [2,3,4,] and ability to inhibit cytokine-mediated inflammation [1,5,6].

Acknowledgements: This work was supported by a grant from Prince of Songkla University of Thailand.

References: [1] Xu, J. et al. (2006)J. Vet. Intern. Med. 20:756.

[2] Zin, Z.M. et al. (2002) Food Chem. 78:227–231.

[3] Shaw, C.Y. et al. (2003) Phytother. Res. 17:823–825.

[4] Ikeda, R. et al. (2009) Food Chem. 113:1169–1172.

[5] Kim, H.J. et al. (2004) Fitoterapia 75:261–266.

[6] Moon, P.D. et al. (2007) Eur. J. Pharm. 555:218–225.