Indonesian Researchers Find That Taro Corm Extract Shows Powerful Protection Against Stomach Ulcers
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Aug 28, 2026 15 minutes ago
A new animal study suggests that an extract made from taro corms, the underground part of Colocasia esculenta, may provide surprisingly strong protection against alcohol-induced stomach ulcers.
Taro corm extract dramatically reduced stomach ulcer damage in rats, with the strongest dose producing 96.55% protection
Scientists investigated whether an ethanol extract of taro corm could protect the stomach lining while reducing inflammation. The work combined chemical analysis, computer-based prediction of biological targets, and experiments in rats.
What the Researchers Tested
Male Wistar rats were divided into seven groups, including healthy and untreated ulcer controls, groups receiving the ulcer medicine sucralfate or the plant compound quercetin, and groups receiving taro corm extract at 200, 400, or 800 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. Treatments continued for 14 days before stomach injury was triggered using 70% ethanol.
The researchers were from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy at Universitas Padjadjaran, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Universitas Bengkulu, Indonesia.
Protection Increased with Higher Doses
The results were striking. Untreated rats exposed to ethanol had an ulcer area of 4.38%. With taro extract, this fell to 1.28% at 200 mg/kg, 0.09% at 400 mg/kg, and just 0.01% at 800 mg/kg.
Calculated stomach protection reached 79.30%, 89.65%, and 96.55%, respectively. By comparison, sucralfate produced 65.49% protection and quercetin 82.75% in this experiment.
Microscopic examination strengthened the findings. Higher doses were associated with healthier stomach lining, fewer inflammatory immune cells and greater restoration of mucosal thickness. At 800 mg/kg, mucosal thickness reached 1,061.71 micrometers, approaching the 1,111.51 micrometers measured in healthy controls.
Why Taro May Be Protective
For this
Thailand Medical News report, an important finding is that the extract contained substantial amounts of potentially beneficial compounds, including vitamin C, phenolics, flavonoids and quercetin. Chemical profiling also detected several other classes of metabolites.
Researchers additionally examined NF-κB p65, part of an inflammatory signaling system activated during tissue injury. Increasing taro extract doses produced progressively lower NF-κB p65 expression, although this particular difference did not reach statistical significance.
Important Limitations and Conclusions
These results do not mean eating taro can treat human ulcers. This was a rat experiment with a reduced final sample size, and the ethanol model represents acute stomach injury rather than all causes of human ulcers, including H. pylori infection and NSAID use. Larger studies and different ulcer models are needed.
Overall, the findings provide promising early evidence that taro corm extract can subst
antially reduce experimental stomach damage while supporting the protective stomach lining and reducing inflammatory changes, but human clinical studies are essential before therapeutic use can be recommended.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/27/17/7693
Read Also:
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/herbs-and-phytochemicals
https://www.thailandmedical.news/articles/gastroenterology 
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