Journal of Ethnopharmacology 77 (2001) 41 – 47 Antiulcerogenic and analgesic effects of Maytenus aquifolium, Sorocea bomplandii and Zolernia ilicifolia F.G. Gonzalez, T.Y. Portela, E.J. Stipp, L.C. Di Stasi * Laborato ´rio de Fitofarmacos, Departamento de Farmacologia, Instituto de Biocie ˆncias, Unesp, Botucatu, SP, CEP 18618 -000, Brazil Received 16 October 2000; received in revised form 29 April 2001; accepted 12 May 2001 Abstract Maytenus aquifolium (Celastraceae), Sorocea bomplandii (Moraceae) and Zolernia ilicifolia (Fabaceae) are native plants from the Tropical Atlantic Forest (Mata Atla ˆntica, Brazil) known a ‘espinheira-santa’. These plants are traditionally used as analgesic and antiulcerogenic medicine, with the same traditional uses of the true ‘espinheira-santa’ (Maytenus ilicifolia, Celastraceae), an efficient antiulcerogenic agent. Pharmacological and toxicological studies with these plants have not been carried out. The purpose in this study was to evaluate the efficacy (analgesic and antiulcerogenic activities), safety (acute toxicity) and quality (phytochem- ical profile) of these three plants. The analgesic effect was analyzed by writhing and tail flick tests, while antiulcerogenic effect was performed through ulcer induction by ethanol and indomethacin/bethanecol assays. LD 50 and acute toxic effects, as well as phytochemical profiles of all plants also were carried. Surprisingly, the three plants showed analgesic and antiulcerogenic effects at dose of 1000 mg/kg, v.o. Maytenus aquifolium lowering all ulcerogenic parameters (ethanol test), but increased the ulcerogenic effects in the indomethacin/bethanecol test. Sorocea bomplandii produced antiulcerogenic effects in both experimental models used, while Zolernia ilicifolia showed significant effects only in indomethacin/bethanecol-induced gastric lesions. Pre-treatment with Zolernia ilicifolia induced someone toxic effects. A phytochemical profile for each plant species was determined and its main chemical classes of compounds were described. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Medicinal plants; Analgesic; Antiulcerogenic; Celastraceae; Moraceae; Fabaceae www.elsevier.com/locate/jethpharm 1. Introduction Maytenus aquifolium (Celastraceae), Sorocea bomp - landii (Moraceae) and Zolernia ilicifolia (Fabaceae) are native plants from the Tropical Atlantic Forest (Mata Atla ˆntica, Brazil) known a ‘espinheira-santa’. These plants are traditionally used as analgesic and antiul- cerogenic medicines, with the same traditional uses of the true ‘espinheira-santa’ (Maytenus ilicifolia, Celas- traceae), an efficient antiulcerogenic agent (Souza- Formigoni et al., 1991; Oliveira et al., 1991). Due to the phenotypic similarities all these species are collected and used as herbal remedies in traditional medicine of the Brazilian Tropical Atlantic Forest Region, State of Sa ˜o Paulo, Brazil (Di Stasi et al., 2001a,b,c). On the other hand, several chemical studies has been performed with M. aquifolium and Sorocea bomplandii (Vilegas et al., 1994, 1995, 1998), but their traditional use and marketing occurred before any preclinical stud- ies on pharmacological and toxicological effects had been performed. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate the phar- macological efficacy (analgesic and antiulcerogenic ac- tivities) and safety (acute toxicity effects and LD 50 ) and to determine qualititative phytochemical profiles of the these three plants —M. aquifolium, S. bomplandii and Z. ilicifolia. 2. Methodology 2.1. Plant material The plant material used in the present study was collected during the month of December in the Inter- * Corresponding author. Tel.: +55-14-6802-6254; fax: +55-14- 6821-3744. E-mail address: ldistasi@ibb.unesp.br (L.C. Di Stasi). 0378-8741/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII:S0378-8741(01)00268-9