Abstract
Background
Hymenocardia acida (HA) is one of the numerous medicinal
plants in Nigeria with ethnomedicinal history of usage in the treatment of
ulcer. The study aimed at isolating antiulcer principle(s) from the stem bark of
HA as well as the mechanism of action determination.
Methods Antiulcer screenings of the crude extract, aqueous fraction, and
bulked VLC fractions were performed using in vivo and in vitro
models. Docking was carried out by using PyRx.
Results Crude extract (HA; 1 mg/mL) and the aqueous
fraction of H. acida (HAA; 1 mg/mL) showed an acid
neutralizing capacity (MEq) of 0.3948 and 0.4035, respectively which is
significantly different from 0.431 MEq showed by negative control (distilled
water) at p <0.05. BVLC 3 (1 mg/mL) showed a
significant value of 0.4049 MEq. However, HA showed a dose-dependent decrease in
activity across doses examined, with 100 mg/kg showing an ulcer
index of 10.00±2.89 (61.50%) and cimetidine (positive control;
100 mg/kg), also showed the highest ulcer index of
3.67±0.88 (85.9%), which is significantly different from ulcer
index of 26.00±6.35 (0.00%) p <0.05 observed in
the negative control (5% dimethylsulphoxide). The highest ulcer index of
8.00±1.32 (65.10%) was noted in BVLC 3. Bioactive BVLC 3,
resulted in an isolated compound (BF3B2A). The compound was suggested to be
lupeol, with a docking score of −7.7. It showed a van der Waal
interaction with some key amino acid residues in the vonoprazan binding
site.
Conclusion The experimental studies justify the ethnomedicinal claim of
usage among locals.
Key words Acid neutralizing capacity - Docking - Hymenocardia acida - Lupeol - Ulcer