Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of alkaloids from Ba lotus seeds (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn) on HCl/ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury and to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Mice were intragastrically administered with alkaloids from Ba lotus seed (ABLS) and gastric mucosal injury was induced in mice by HCl/ethanol. Serum cytokine and other index levels were examined by using commercial kits, and the gastric tissue was determined by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot assay. The gastric mucosal injury area, percentage inhibition, gastric secretion volume and pH of gastric juice in the 100 mg/(kg·d) ABLS treated-mice were 1.13 mm2, 84.5%, 0.52 mL and 3.3, respectively. Additionally, serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-12, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), motilin (MOT), substance P (SP) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) in these mice were lower than those in the control mice, while the levels of somatostatin (SS) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) were higher than those in the control mice. The treated mice had higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and lower MDA level in gastric tissues than the control ones. ABLS also could increase the mRNA and protein expression levels of inhibitor kappaB-α (IκB-α), epidermal growth factor (EGF), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), endothelial NOS (eNOS), Mn-SOD, Gu/Zn-SOD and catalase (CAT), and decrease nuclear factor kappaB (NF-κB) and inducible NOS (iNOS) expression in gastric tissues compared to those in the control group. This study has demonstrated that ABLS treatment attenuated gastric mucosal injury due to their antioxidant capacity.

Key words: Ba lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn), anti-inflammatory, alkaloids, antioxidant