Beneficial role of Punarnavine against immobilization stress induced gastric ulceration in rats

Present study was designed to investigate the effect of Punarnavine in immobilization stress induced gastric ulceration in rats. Immobilization stress was induced by immobilizing the animal for 2 hours daily for 10 days. Punarnavine (20 mg/Kg & 40 mg/Kg p.o) was given to drug treated rat groups 1 hour prior to induction of stress each day. At the end of stress protocol, gastric ulcerations in terms of ulcer index were evaluated. Stress induced changes in body weight, adrenal gland weight, plasma glucose, Serum corticosterone, serum thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and serum reduced glutathione (gSH) levels were evaluated to estimate the effect of Punarnavine on all the above-mentioned biochemical stress markers. In the study, immobilization stress resulted in profound gastric ulcerations as evident by significant rise in ulcer index. Significant increase in the adrenal gland weight and significant decrease in the body weight was also observed. Serum corticosterone levels (marker of stress) were also significantly elevated. Immobilization also increased oxidative stress assessed in terms of increase in serum TBARS and decrease in gSH levels. Treatment with Punarnavine attenuated immobilization stress induced gastric ulcerations, adrenal hypertrophy and increase in corticosterone levels along with normalization of other stress induced biochemical alterations.