Effects of Diets Containing Seeds of Soybean (Glycine max) on Healing of Acetic Acid Induced Gastric Ulcers in Rats

Abstract

Soybean-based foods are a known to be good sources of phytochemicals which are of immense health benefit. The effect of soybean incorporation into rat diet on healing of experimental gastric ulcers was investigated. Male Wistar rats (120-140g; n=5) rats were fed for six weeks on normal rat diets but specially composed to contain 25%, 50% and 75% by weight of raw Soybean (SB) diet respectively fed for six weeks respectively. Thereafter, gastric ulcer was induced using acetic acid and feeding continued till the end of the experiment. Daily body weights were monitored, Basal gastric acid secretion, ulcer score and histological evaluations were carried out on days 3, 7 and 10 post ulcer induction. Results were subjected to one-way ANOVA analysis, presented as mean ± SEM. Body weights of SB diet fed rats were significantly increased compared with ulcer alone all through the experiment. Basal acid output significantly reduced as healing progressed in the 50% and 75% SB diet fed group when compared with the group without SB. Incorporation of SB into diet increased ulcer healing rate, with the 75% SB diet group having the highest rate of 68% (day 3) and 92.1% (day 10). 25% SB diet afforded 50% (day 3) and 47.5% (day 10) healing respectively. There were no visible lesions but moderate preponderance of mucous cells i