Antiulcer effect of epoxy-carvone

Abstract

Epoxy-carvone is a monoterpene present in essential oils of various plants. It is a derivative of carvone, which has an epoxy group instead of the α-and β-unsaturated ketone group present in carvone. As recent studies have shown that several alcohol terpenes and compounds containing α, β-unsaturated ketone groups present antiulcer effect, the main of the present study was to evaluate the antiulcer effect of epoxy-carvone. The models of ulcers induced by ethanol and indomethacin were used in this study. Epoxy-carvone at the dose of 1 mg/kg did not present antiulcer effect against ulcer induced by ethanol, but at the doses of 10, 30 and 50 mg/kg it presented gastroprotective effect in both ulcer models. Epoxy-carvone also did not affect the gastric secretion in the pylorus ligation test. Moreover, pretreatment with indomethacin or L-nitroarginine methyl ester did not reverse the gastroprotection produced by this monoterpene. This study showed that epoxycarvone presents antiulcer effect and suggests that this effect does not involve either antisecretory activity or increase of the nitric oxide and prostaglandin synthesis.