Biological Science: Research Developments and Innovations Vol. 2

Peptic ulcer disease remains an important gastrointestinal disorder, while non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exposure, alcohol-related mucosal injury, recurrence, adverse effects and treatment access continue to justify the search for safe and affordable gastroprotective agents. Thespesia garckeana (syn. Azanza garckeana in some literature), popularly known as Goron Tula, is an ethnomedicinal plant with reported gastrointestinal and other therapeutic applications. This chapter integrates experimental evidence on the fruit pericarp, combining preliminary phytochemical screening, acute oral toxicity assessment, and anti-ulcer studies in aspirin- and ethanol-induced gastric injury models. Solvent extraction yield was aqueous (36.95%), ethanolic (39.09%) and methanolic (44.02%) with array of secondary metabolite classes (phytochemical profile). No mortality occurred up to 5,000 mg/kg in the oral acute toxicity study, although mild transient behavioral changes were observed. In male rats, methanolic extract (METG) at 200 mg/kg produced 99.4% inhibition in the aspirin model and 66.5% in the ethanol model, with the aspirin response closely approaching rabeprazole (98.8%). In female rats, the corresponding inhibition values were 79.6% and 69.0%. A restricted block analysis using sex as the blocking factor demonstrated significant variation attributable to sex (F=23.00, p<0.001) and a highly significant treatment effect (F=686.86, p<0.0001). These findings support a multifactorial gastroprotective profile involving antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, mucosal-defensive and cytoprotective actions, while the non-linear dose response indicates that higher dose does not necessarily confer greater protection, thus the crude methanol plant extract of T. garckeana demonstrated maximum anti-ulcer efficacy at a mid-range dose (200 mg/kg) but loses efficacy at a higher dose (400 mg/kg) exhibiting a classic biphasic dose-response relationship. The evidence supports further phytochemical standardization, mechanistic studies, toxicological evaluation, formulation research and eventual clinical investigation, rather than immediate clinical substitution for established anti-ulcer therapy.