Gastroprotective effects of morniflumate, an esterified anti-inflammatory drug.

An experimental study on morniflumate, the beta-morpholinoethyl ester of niflumic acid, was undertaken in the rat to test its gastroprotective and "cytoprotective" properties and to assess its effects on gastric secretion and on the prostaglandin contents in the stomach wall. Morniflumate induced intense and usually dose-dependent inhibition of the gastric hemorrhagic lesions caused by acetylsalicylic acid, indomethacin, diclofenac, ketoprofen, naproxen and phenylbutazone and of the gastric necrotic lesions caused by absolute ethanol, HCl 0.6 mol l-1, NaOH 0.2 mol l-1 and NaCl 25%. Morniflumate also exerted marked inhibition of gastric acid secretion both in normal and in pylorus-ligated rats. The compound raised the concentration of "cytoprotective" prostaglandins in the glandular portion of the stomach but did not reverse the synthesis-block effect of the ulcerogenic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs whose gastric effects it inhibited.