Pumpkin Oil-Based Nanostructured Lipid Carrier System for Antiulcer Effect in NSAID-Induced Gastric Ulcer Model in Rats

Peptic ulcer disease, a painful lesion of the gastric mucosa, is considered one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders. This study aims to investigate the formulation of pumpkin seed oil (PSO)-based nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) to utilize PSO as the liquid lipid component of NLCs and to achieve oil dispersion in the nano-range in the stomach. Box-Behnken design was utilized to deduce the optimum formula with minimum particle size. The optimized PSO-NLCs formula was investigated for gastric ulcer protective effects in Wistar rats by evaluating ulcer index and determination of gastric mucosa oxidative stress parameters. PSO was successfully incorporated as the liquid lipid (LL) component of NLCs. The prepared optimum PSO-NLCs formula showed a size of 64.3 nm. Pretreatment of animals using the optimized PSO-NLCs formula showed significantly (p< 0.001) lower ulcer index compared to indomethacin alone group and significantly (p