Biol. Pharm. Bull. 28(2) 353—357 (2005)

climbing perennial vine belonging to the hemp family. People who lived in ancient times ate young shoots as a vegetable, and the dried flowers were used for their slight narcotic effect and sedative action in the treatment of mania, toothache, earache, and neuralgia. In the present, hops is used as a sedative and mild hypnotic, and is also used for brewing, foaming, and adding bitterness, aroma and flavor to beer. In Japan, hops is used as an over-the-counter (OTC) drug for depression of the central nervous system or activation of gastric function. However, there are actually few reports about the effect of hops on gastric function, and it is not experimentally clear what mechanisms are involved in gastric function activation by hops. Pylorus ligation has been extensively used as a method of evaluating gastric function, since the operative procedure is simple and the evaluation of many parameters can be done in a relatively short time. In the present study, we examined the effect of hops on gastric function and attempted to clarify its mechanisms using a rat pylorus-ligated model.