Surfactant approach to the gastric mucosal barrier: protection of rats by banana even when acidified.

Physical studies of their suspensions have shown bananas to be highly surface active at both liquid-air and solid-liquid interfaces which they render hydrophobic by adsorption of phospholipid detected by thin-layer chromatography and by staining. Electron microscopy of the fruit has demonstrated lamellar bodies--the same form in which phospholipid is so surface-active in the lung. When administered to intact rats and scored by two methods (ulcer length and area), banana imparted appreciable (75%) protection against acid insult (1 ml of 0.8 N HCl) in a dose-dependent manner not attributable to "bulking" or buffering as it was equally effective at a pH of 2. The best protection (89% by ulcer length) was obtained with banana vortexed with milk (1:1), this mixture offering the possibility of a simple foodstuff on which to maintain patients treated acutely by suppressing acid secretion pharmacologically. These studies support Davenport's original concept of a gastric mucosal barrier--but one whose physical reality is provided by an adsorbed layer of surface-active phospholipid (surfactant).