Efficacy of Capsicum Frutescens in Curing the Peptic Ulcer

Abstract

Chili peppers are often used around the world to ma ke a wide variety of sauces, known as hot sauce, chili sauce, or pepp er sauce. Red chilis contain high amounts of vitamin C and carotene (provitamin A). meanwhile Several studies found that capsaicin could have an anti-ulc er protective effect on stomachs infected with H. pylori by affecting the chemicals the stomach secretes in response to infection. The present study was designated to c lear out the effect of aqueous extracts of red chilli pepper (RCP) and some spicy foods on healing acute gastric ulcer induced by aspirin in rats. Sixty six adult m ale albino rats (170+5g B.Wt.) of Sprague Dawley Strain were obtained from animal hou se of the faculty of medicine, Um Al Qura University were used and dispo rted into 6 groups (n= 6 rats), one of them used as control -ve while other groups had given aspirin orally (200mg/kg B.Wt.), one of these groups left as contr ol +ve and other groups administrated with aqueous extracts of RCP at doses of 300 and 600 mg/kg B.Wt. and 30% spicy nuggets and chicken for seven days. T he length of gastric ulcer, volume of gastric juice, pH value, and histopatholo gical changes were examined. Our results revealed that, oral administration of a spirin (200mg/kg B.Wt.) induced gastric ulcer in rats; the mean length of g astric ulcer in control +ve group was higher compared with in control -ve group . Also, Oral administration of RCP extract at a dose of 600mg/kg B.Wt., caused high decrease in the length of gastric ulcer. On the other hand, the lowest decrea se of gastric ulcer length was happened in rats fed on 30% spicy nuggets. The resu lts concluded that oral administration with all tested plants reduced the lof gastric ulcer, volume of gastric juice, and histopathological changes. On th e other hand, RCP extracts