Studies on the protective effect of deglycyrrhinised liquorice against aspirin (ASA) and ASA plus bile acid-induced gastric mucosal damage, and ASA absorption in rats.

By per-oral intubation of the stomach, four groups of rats (n = 22) received ASA 64 mg/kg, alone or with taurodeoxycholic acid (TDC, 5 mM), DGL (2000 mg/kg) or TDC plus DGL. At four hours the severity of bleeding was assessed by a lesion scoring system and expressed as medians and quartiles. In a separate study two groups of rats (n = 7) received ASA (128 mg/kg) or ASA plus DGL (2000 mg/kg) and salicylate levels measured in serial tail blood samples at 20, 40, 60 and 80 minutes. Lesion scores were increased from 6(3;10) with ASA alone to 12(5;16) by TDC (p less than 0.05) and reduced by DGL to 1(0;3.5) for ASA alone and 3.5(0;6) for ASA plus TDC (p less than 0.0005 in both cases). In the second study a slight reduction of ASA absorption was found only at 20 minutes with a median level of 0.9 mmol/l for the DGL treated rats and 1.2 mmol/l for the ASA alone group (p less than 0.05). No differences were found at the other times. We have also demonstrated that although DGL diminished ASA (128 mg/kg)-induced gastric mucosal damage from 17(12;25) to 8(3;14) (p less than 0.005) when the two were given together it did not do so significantly when DGL was given before ASA--15(20;22). Intraperitoneal DGL reduced lesion scores from ASA (128 mg/kg) from 14(11;24) to 7(1;19) (p less than 0.03), thus indicating a systemic as well as a local effect of the drug.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)