Gastroprotective effect of royal jelly in a model of acute gastric lesion and over gastrointestinal motility

Abstract

Royal Jelly (RJ) is a highly nutritious food produced by worker bees. Particularly remarkable for its content of vitamin, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids. This study was performed to investigate the effects of RJ in the model of gastric ulcer induced by ethanol and over the gastrointestinal motility. Experimental protocols were registered on the Institutional Ethics Committee under number 104/09. Swiss male mice (n=8) were used in the experiments after 18 hours of fasting period. Animals were treated by gavage with vehicle (NaCl 150mM/200µL) or RJ (40, 100, 200 and 400mg/kg) 1h before absolute ethanol (200µL/animal). The same treatment was applied before administration of 10% activated charcoal. After 30min of ethanol administration, animals were sacrificed and the percentage of injured gastric area was determined by ImageJ software to evaluate the gastroprotective activity. After 60 minutes activated charcoal administration, the animals were sacrificed and removed the stomach, as well as small and large intestine to evaluate gastrointestinal motility by the distance traveled by activated charcoal suspension. RJ at doses of 100 and 200mg/kg significantly reduced the percentage of ulcerated area and increased the gastrointestinal transit compared with the control group (p<0.05). We can conclude that RJ showed gastroprotective activity in the model of gastric lesions induced by ethanol, probably due their antioxidant properties and increased the gastrointestinal motility by mechanisms as yet unknown. Additional studies are needed to better clarify the mechanisms involved in these effects.