Cerium oxide (CeO 2 ) nanoparticles having size range of 160 nm were prepared by using simple and effective sol-gel process and evaluated for their ulcer protective activity in an animal model. CeO 2 nanoparticles at a dose of 1mg/kg found to protect gastrointestinal mucosal from ethanol induced gastric ulcers. The ability of these nanoparticles to protect ethanol induced ulcers could be supported by increased amount of biomarkers in the native tissue like superoxide dismutase (SOD) (from 85.18 ± 0.24 to 103.18 ± 0.42) and Catalase (from 66.48 ± 0.71 to 85.88 ± 0.61) in Group 2 and Group 4. The percentage of ulcer inhibition of CeO 2 nanoparticles is 80.2% which is also close to the standard drug ranitidine (87.9%). The prepared nanoparticles were characterized by SEM and XRD. The probable mechanism may be due to the dual oxidation state of CeO 2 which will help in scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reduce oxidative stress locally and also mimicking the intrinsic intracellular enzymes like SOD. All these results and properties could be useful in protecting the gastrointestinal mucosa from oxidative stress generated by ethanol.

Eurycoma longifolia plant, the so called Tongkat Ali in Malaysia, is a well grown prominent tree in all Southeast Asia. It is well known among traditional medicine practitioners as a curative plant for many diseases and health conditions. The major quassinoid from the plant is eurycomanone, which exhibits many prominent effects on various cancer cell lines. Numerous studies have shown that eurycomanone inhibits cancerous cell growth and encourages cell death both in vitro and in vivo test. Even though analyses of safety and toxicity have been conducted, there is still a substantial knowledge barrier when it comes to providing a scientific foundation for the molecular mechanism as well as intervention strategy in the living people cancer cell. In a way to offer adequate baseline data for future investigations based on molecular mechanism and intervention, the present work seeks to review the researches conducted to date on this herbal plant.