Protective effects of Yijin-tang extract (YTE) were investigated on ethanol-induced acute gastric injury. Simultaneous determination of six components, homogentisic aicd, liquiritin, hesperidin, neohesperidin, poncirin, and glycyrrhizin was performed in YTE by high performance liquid chromatography-photodiode. Acute gastric lesion was induced by oral administration of absolute ethanol (5 mL/kg). The positive control (omeprazole, 50 mg/kg) and YTE groups (200 and 400 mg/kg) were administered by oral gavage 2 h prior to ethanol treatment. The animals were sacrificed 1 h after receiving ethanol treatment. Acute toxicity study was performed to evaluate the safety of YTE. YTE protected gastric mucosa against ethanol-induced acute gastric injury including hemorrhage and hyperemia. YTE reduced the elevated lipid peroxidation of stomach and increased the activities of antioxidant enzyme. In the acute toxicity study, YTE did not cause any toxic effect at the dose level of 2000 mg/kg in rats. These results showed that YTE protects gastric mucosa
Hesperidin, Neohesperidin and poncirin were purchased from Chengdu Biopurify Phytochemicals Ltd. (Chengdu, China)