374GASTRIC-ULCER PROTECTIVE ACTIVITY OF ARGYREIA SPECIOSA SWEET LEAVESGastric ulcer occurs in stomach. The ulcers are mucosal erosions which may further complicate to bleeding and perforation of mucosal wall. It occurs due to imbalance between offensive (acid, pepsin & bacteria) and defensive (mucin, mucosal glycoproteins & prostaglandins) factors. Ethanolic extract of Argyreia speciosa Sweet leaves was explored for gastriculcer protective activity. Acute toxicity studies of ethanolic extract of Argyreia speciosa (AS) leaves were conducted by following OECD, 423 guidelines. There was no mortality or any signs of behavioral changes or toxicity observed after oral administration of AS up to the dose level of 2000mg/kg body weight in rats. Ethanol (EtOH)-induced and Cold restraint stress (CRS)-induced ulcer models were used for evaluation of gastro-protective activity. AS in the dose of 50mg/kg, 100 mg/kg and 200 mg/kg was given orally once daily for a period of five days, had shown pronounced dose dependent protective effect against gastric ulcers induced by cold restrain stress (CRS). At 200mg/kg, AS had shown maximum ulcer protective effect in ethanol induced model. The ulcer index in ethanol induced model was reduced from 52.66 ± 1.82 to 21.16 ± 1.08 and from 21.66 ± 1.86 to 10.33 ± 0.8 in CRS model. AS had not shown any significant effect on the weight of glandular portion of the stomach. AS in the dose of 100mg/kg and 200mg/kg almost completely inhibited the animals against stress induced free radical damage as evidenced by the decrease in LPO as well as decrease in SOD and increase in CAT levelalekh78@gmail.comResearch4122013Gastric-ulcer,Argyreia speciosa,Ulcer index,Gastric secretionSahu Alakh N,Hemalatha S,Sairam KDepartment of Pharmaceutics, I. I.T. (BHU), Varanasi – 221005, India,Department of Pharmaceutics, I. I.T. (BHU), Varanasi – 221005, India,Department of Pharmaceutics, I. I.T. (BHU), Varanasi – 221005, India