Herbal Induced Hepatoprotection and Hepatotoxicity : A Critical Review.

Traditional herbal drugs are wonderful remedies for the treatment of various devastating disorders. Recently, there has been a change in a universal fashion from synthetic to herbal medicine, which is like homecoming to nature. In the present situation, the dietary changes lead to liver disorders like non-alcoholic and alcoholic fatty liver disorders. India is one of the world’s twelve leading biodiversity centers with the presence of over 45,000 diverse plant species, out of this about 15,000-20,000 plants have good medicinal and therapeutic properties of which only about 7,000-7,500 are being used by traditional practitioners. Hepatic injury accounts for 3.5%-9.5% of all adverse drug reaction reports and up to 14.7% of fatal adverse reaction. Hepatic disorders/toxicity can occur by several mechanisms like Cytochrome P450 activation, lipid peroxidation, Induction of nitric acid synthase, mitochondrial dysfunction, activation of pro-inflammatory mediators and Bile acid-induced liver cell death. There are a number of drugs or therapies available for the treatment of hepatic disorders, but still there is a need for the novel drug discovery which can target multiple disease pathways. Traditional medicines have exhaustive ancient and scientific literature for curing a lot of life threatening disorders with less or no side effects. There are number of scientifically proved hepatoprotective herbal drugs like Andrographis paniculata, Ocimum sanctum, Solanum nigrum, Silybum marianum, Phyllanthus niruri etc. which are widely used for the treatment of liver disorders. However, there are various herbal plants and phytoconstituents, which are found to be hepatotoxic like Lanata camra Linn, Symphytum officinale, Azadirachta indica, Amantia phalloides etc. This review emphasizes on both sides of the coin like crucial aspects of phytoconstituents with reference to their hepatoprotective as well as hepatotoxic effects linked to use of herbal preparations.

Comparative pharmacognosy of Pashanbhed.

Background: Pashanbhed is a commercially available diuretic and lithotropic drug, used to treat renal problems. It is a controversial name as it is assigned to various plants such as Bergenia ligulata, Kalanchoe pinnata, Coleus aromaticus and Rotula aquatica. Objective: To perform the comparative preliminary phytochemical screening, diuretic activity, and thin layer chromatography (TLC) fi nger printing profi le of three plants (B. ligulata, C. aromaticus, and K. pinnata), most commonly used as Pashanbhed. Materials and Methods: Diuretic potential of methanolic extract (ME) of three plants were evaluated at two dose levels (500 and 1,000 mg/kg p.o.), using normal Wistar rats (Lipschitz method). Furosemide (20 mg/kg p.o.) was used as a standard drug. The effect on urine output and electrolyte changes were measured for 24 h and compared. All MEs were screened preliminarily for their constituents and their TLC fi nger printing profi les were prepared. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test. P < 0.05 was considered statistically signifi cant. Results: The MEs of all three plants have shown diuresis in normal rats. However, in intercomparison of the ME C. aromaticus (1,000 mg/kg p.o.) produced more signifi cant diuresis (P < 0.05) and electrolyte excretion compared to other test groups, the effect was at par with furosemide. The ME of these plants showed presence of alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, terpenoids, saponins, fl avonoids, etc. Conclusion: The ME of C. aromaticus (1,000 mg/kg p.o.) has showed highest diuretic action (4.2) among the tested extracts. This suggests the use of C. aromaticus leaves as “Pashanbhed”; the most effective diuretic drug.

Anti-diabetic and antihyperlipidemic effect of allopolyherbal formulation in OGTT and STZ-induced diabetic rat model.

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic activities of Allopolyherbal formulation (APHF) consisting of combinations of three well known medicinal plants used in traditional medicines (Trigonella foenum graceum, Momordica charantia, Aegle marmelos) and synthetic oral hypoglycaemic drug (Glipizide-GL). The optimized combination of lyophilized hydro-alcoholic extracts of drugs was 2:2:1 using OGTT model. The optimized PHF was simultaneously administered with GL and optimized using OGTT model in diabetic rats and further studied in STZ-induced diabetic rats for 21 days. The results (serum glucose level, lipid profile, hepatic enzymes and body weight) were compared with the standard drug GL (10 mg/kg body wt). The optimized APHF (500+5 mg/kg body wt) has shown significant antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic activities. The results were comparable with the standard; even better than the GL (10 mg/kg body wt) alone. The proposed hypothesis has reduced the no. of drug components from eight to three and dose almost 50 % of both PHF and GL which fulfil the FDA requirements for export. Thus the developed APHF will be an ideal alternative for the existing hypoglycemic formulations in the market with an additional advantage of hypolipidemic effect and minimizing the cardiovascular risk factors associated with diabetes.