Résumé
To evaluate the healing properties of natural honey on experimentally induced antral ulcers in refed rats. Department of Medical pharmacology, College of Medicine, King Saudi University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Antral ulcers were induced by subcutaneous injection of a single dose of indomethacin [20 mg/kg]in refed rats and the effects of oral treatment with honey [0.156 and 0.312 g/kg] or sucralfate [250 and 500 mg/kg] twice daily on the time-course of antral ulcers were investigated. Sucralfate was used as a reference drug. Treatment with honey or sucralfate was started 24 h after indomethacin administration and rats were killed 3, 5, 10 and 15 days after indomethacin to evaluate gastric lesions. Compared with controls, both honey and sucralfate significantly accelerated healing of antral ulcers. Thus, there were 61-70% and 51-64% more healings than the corresponding controls after 9-14 days treatment with highest doses of honey and sucralfate respectively. Furthermore, the healing of ulcers was also reflected by the absence of diarrhoea and regaining of body weight of rats. These results suggest that honey has curative properties for antral ulcers and may be used like sucralfate in the management of peptic ulcer diseases. However, further biochemical, histopathological and clinical studies are required to establish the therapeutic potentialities of honey in modern medicine