Assessment of Protective Effect of Turmeric on Aspirin Induced Gastric Injury on Wistar Rats

: Turmeric (from Zingiberaceae family) is highly regarded as a universal panacea in the herbal medicine with a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities. Forty eight adult rats (150g-200g body weight) were randomly divided into six (control, treatment, 3 post treatment and recovery) groups of eight rats each. Gastric injury were induced with the administration of different concentration of Aspirin and co treated with different concentration of Turmeric for a period of 14-28 days. It was histologically revealed that Aspirin can induced gastric injury and Turmeric protect gastric layers. There is need for more research work on the protective effect of Turmeric on gastric layers against gastric injury.

Turmeric (from Zingiberaceae family) is highly regarded as a universal panacea in the herbal medicine with a wide spectrum of pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant activity, cardiovascular and antidiabetic effects, inflammatory and edematic disorders, gastrointestinal effects, anti-cancer effect, antimicrobial activity, hepatoprotective and renoprotective (Verma, 2018). Due to its ability to interact with various molecular targets, turmeric inhibits inflammatory cell proliferation and angiogenesis, as well as acts chemopreventively .These properties are associated with the regulation of proinflammatory cytokines, nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) enzymes, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), lipoxygenase, xanthine oxidase, and reduction in malondialdehyde (MDA) ( Adibian et al., 2019). Aspirin is part of a group of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), but differs from them in the mechanism of action. Due physico-chemical characteristics, aspirin may cause injury to mucosal lining and development of peptic ulcer disease and, if complicated, it can perforate and cause local hemorrhage (Cryer and Mahaffe, 2014).

MATERIALS AND METHOD
Experimental rats and chemicals: The Wister rats weighing 180-200g were purchased and were housed in a temperature controlled room at 25°c ± 1°c under standard condition of hanging cages and were acclimatized for a week prior to the experiment (Smith et al., 2018). Histological procedure: The stomach of rats were removed and wash to remove blood and fixed in 10% formal saline for 48hours. They were dehydrated through graded series of ethanol and embedded in paraffin wax. Blocks were prepared and sectioned at a thickness of 6-7micron using microtome the sections were deparaffinised in xylene and stained with haematoxylin-eosine and Alcian Blue for the demonstration of Mucins (Ali et al., 2012). Changes induced by Aspirin administered and protective effects of Turmeric were analysed and photographed under photomicroscope along the control group.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The layers of the stomach were well arranged and visible as mucosa layer, sub mucosa layer and muscularis propria layer.
The mucosa layer of the stomach of the control rats showed normal histology with intact epithelial lining and gastric pits. The histological alteration in the stomach of wistar rats administered with 300mg/kg Aspirin, sections of the stomach showed many changes represented by distortions in the lining epithelial layer, the appearance of congestion in the muscular layer, with the occurrence of vasodilation compared with control group.
Furthermore, histological findings showed enlargement of the submucosa and muscularis propria layers in the aspirin treated group. Aspirin administration also resulted in erosion of the epithelia lining compared to control group. Gastric mucosal integrity is normally maintained by defense mechanisms. Several studies have reported a strong association between gastric mucosal damage and aspirin intake. Gastrointestinal ulceration and localized mucosal inflammation are among the most serious gastrointestinal complications (Goldstein and Cryer, 2015).
Histopathological examination of gastric mucosa treated with Turmeric and omeprazole revealed a normal glandular pattern with mild submucosal edema and low leukocyte infiltration. The regeneration of gastric mucosa following the administration of Turmeric and omeprazole may be associated with the inhibition of oxidative stress.
The layers of the stomach were well arranged and visible as mucosa layer, submucosa layer and muscularis propria layer. The mucosa layer of the stomach of the control rats showed normal histology with intact epithelial lining and gastric pits (plate 1). Inflammation was observed in the mucosa and submucosa layers of both aspirin treated group as well as ulceration of epithelia lining and mucosa layer in this group (plate 2). There was moderate erosion of the epithelial extending to the submucosa with hemorrhage at the sub mucosal layer; there was moderate infiltration of inflammatory cells in Aspirin 300mg/kg +Turmeric 100mg/kg treated group (plate 3). There was mild erosion with infiltration of inflammatory cells of Aspirin 300mg/kg +Turmeric 150mg/kg treated group (plate 4).
There was moderate mucosal erosion with infiltration of inflammatory cells at the submucosa level of Aspirin 300mg/kg+ Omeprazole 30mg/kg treated group (plate 5). The gastric glands (GG) and gastric pit appear unremarkable in Micrograph of stomach of Recovery group (plate 6).

Conclusion:
In conclusion, the present study further confirms that oral aspirin administration causes ulcerative changes. These findings suggest that oral administration of aspirin reduces the mucosa surface area of stomach and duodenum. Hence, it is recommended that aspirin be administered with caution and if daily intake becomes a necessity, it will be prudent to accompany such administration with drugs that could prevent injuries to the gastrointestinal mucosa. The results of the present study suggest that turmeric can be used as a dietary supplement in order to prevent negative effects of aspirin to some extent.