A Pharmacological Review on Natural Antiulcer Agents

INTRODUCTION: Ulcer is a common disorder of the gastrointestinal system, which causes much discomfort to patients, disrupting their daily routines and causes mental agony. Peptic ulcer is defined as a break off in the continuity of the mucosa of stomach or duodenum as a consequence of some medications like nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), gastric acids and pepsin finally causes lesions in intestinal mucosa. Basically, word “peptic” is derived from Greek term “peptikos” whose meaning is related to digestion .Various reports indicates that old age group patients are more prone to gastric ulcer. Younger individuals have higher risk of duodenal ulcers 3, . The pathogenesis of peptic ulcer disease includes a complex imbalance between gastric offensive factors like acid, pepsin secretion, Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori), bile salts, ethanol, some medications like NSAIDS, lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide (NO) and defensive mucosal factors like prostaglandins (PG’s), gastric mucus, cellular renovation, blood flow, mucosal cell shedding, glycoproteins, mucin secretion, proliferation and antioxidant enzymes like catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione level. Peptic ulcer can be categorized on the basis of location and on the severity of disease. Numerous other factors are also responsible for progression of peptic ulcers like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF α), reactive oxygen species (ROS), release of histamine, incidence of apoptosis and bile acids secretion. REVIEW ARTICLE